AVERY COUNTY, N.C. (828newsNOW) — A hiker who fell about 50 feet at Grandfather Mountain was rescued Sunday in a coordinated effort involving multiple emergency response agencies, according to North Carolina Emergency Management.
The North Carolina Emergency Management State Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh received a request for assistance from Avery County Emergency Management shortly before 2 p.m., the agency said.
NC Emergency Management dispatched a North Carolina State Highway Patrol helicopter crew with North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team technicians from the Raleigh Fire Department.
On the ground, members of NC Mountain Rescue Team 1, Linville-Central Rescue Squad, Avery County fire departments and EMS personnel, along with an NC Emergency Management area coordinator, made their way to the injured hiker.
Crews hiked in with medical equipment and supplies and prepared the hiker for an air extraction, according to NC Emergency Management.
The hiker was then loaded onto the State Highway Patrol helicopter and flown to a nearby landing zone, where the patient was transferred to a medical helicopter operated by Highlands Emergency Air Rescue & Transport.
NC Emergency Management said the rescue required extensive training and coordination among the agencies involved.
“These types of high skill, high risk rescues are not completed by chance,” the agency said in a social media post. “It takes hundreds and even thousands of hours of training by all parties.”
The hiker’s condition was not released.