Climber rescued from Mount Rainier shares survival story

Four climbers who were stranded on Mount Rainier since Monday were rescued Thursday morning. All had frostbite, dehydration and doctors said a few of them were hit by falling chunks of ice.

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Yev Krasnitskiy, of Portland, Oregon, was one of those climbers and he spoke about how he and his fellow climbers survived.

“I’m doing wonderful. I’m alive,” he said Thursday evening at Harborview Medical Center.

The team was stranded at 13,500 feet, below Liberty Cap, on the north side of Mount Rainier – and the Liberty Ridge route was closed during the rescue efforts. Liberty Ridge is where a 45-year-old climber died and two other were injured in late May after a rockfall.

Krasnitskiy said on Sunday the group set up an unplanned camp but then a storm then hit that night.

“We were climbing more and higher and higher and kind of got off route and everybody was really exhausted,” he said.

They called for help on Monday but could not be rescued due to weather conditions.

“Really high winds, breaking the tent, ripping the tent, we’re trying to hold on to everything,” Krasnitskiy said. “There were moments when there were breakdowns, there were moments when there were panic attacks with each and every one and we kind of just had to be there for each other and pull each other out.”

Crews attempted to rescue the group several times it didn’t work because of the weather.

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On Thursday, the climbers were rescued in two groups.

Krasnitskiy and the other climbers. Ruslan Khasbulatov, of Jersey City, New Jersey; Vasily Aushev, of New York, New York; and Kostya “Constantine” Toporov, of New York, New York, were taken to Harborview Medical Center.

They were treated and all the climbers were discharged, said Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg.

“When you’re in survival mode, you have your teammates, but you’re completely alone,” Krasnitskiy said.