Climber falls 50 feet from popular hiking spot in NC mountains, officials say
A climber was flown to a hospital after falling 50 feet from a popular North Carolina hiking spot, officials said.
Dozens of first responders rushed to “difficult terrain” to help get the person to safety on Tuesday, July 26, according to the Transylvania County Rescue Squad.
Officials said the climber had a “serious leg injury” after the fall at Looking Glass Rock, roughly 40 miles southwest of the mountain tourist destination of Asheville.
The climber was rescued days after someone was seriously hurt at a nearby waterfall. On July 23, a person fell 20 feet off a ledge at Looking Glass Falls and landed in shallow water, McClatchy News reported.
Officials said the most recent rescue happened at about 10:30 a.m. in the Sunwall Trail area, near U.S. Highway 276 and roughly 10 miles from the Pisgah National Forest’s ranger station.
“We eventually made patient contact and requested additional resources due to the difficult terrain at the base of the rock,” the Transylvania County Rescue Squad wrote in a Facebook post. “Over 30 rescuers representing every fire/rescue department in the county responded to help get the patient out of the woods.”
Looking Glass Rock has an elevation of almost 4,000 feet and towers above much of the landscape, making it a longtime Western North Carolina landmark, according to McClatchy News and park rangers.
“Made of compressed volcanic rock that shimmers like glass when rain or ice settles on its surface, this steep-sided mountain is popular with hikers, climbers, and waterfall-chasers,” the National Park Service said on its website. “Over time, geologic processes like weathering and erosion have whittled away at the mountain, taking all but the dense core of granite that you now see today.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Climber falls 50 feet from popular hiking spot in NC mountains, officials say."
