Climber who survived fall that killed 3 friends was unconscious for hours, awoke in dark before seeking help

It was late in the afternoon and lightly snowing when four rock climbers, working their way up a steep gully between two peaks in Washington's North Cascades Range, decided to turn around for a descent down the mountain that would end with three of them dead.

As they climbed down, the four attached their ropes to a piton — a metal spike pounded into rock cracks or ice and used to secure ropes — that had been placed by a past climber. As one of the men began rappelling off the piton, it ripped out of the mountain, sending all four falling past ice and snow and rock.

They fell some 200 feet, landing in a more sloping ravine where they tumbled for another roughly 200 feet before coming to a stop in a tangle of rope.