Rescue underway after person falls 100 feet off Looking Glass Rock in North Carolina
A person fell 100 feet and got stuck on a popular rock face in Western North Carolina on Thursday, a local rescue group said.
Transylvania County Rescue Squad and emergency medical services responded to the nose of Looking Glass Rock in Pisgah National Forest just after 2 p.m., according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.
Rescuers from Transylvania and Henderson counties made contact with the person and were able to lower them down just after 3 p.m., the department said in a follow-up post. The person’s condition is not known, but an ambulance was reportedly waiting at the base of the rock.
A second person who rescuers identified as the caller was still on the face of the rock awaiting assistance, the followup post states.
Looking Glass Rock is a popular hiking and climbing location in the mountains of North Carolina with an elevation of nearly 4,000 feet, according to Romantic Asheville. The hiking trail is accessible from the town of Brevard, about 45 minutes south of Asheville, and is about six and a half miles round trip.
The exposed rock past the trail’s summit — which offers some of the best views — is an “extremely perilous place,” according to the website Explore Asheville.
Water often freezes an the surface of the rock in the winter, which is what gives Looking Glass Rock its name.
“That ice can make things slippery and dangerous, so exercise caution if hiking in the winter,” Explore Asheville says.
Romantic Asheville advised against getting too close to the edge of what’s known as the Upper Looking Glass Cliffs, saying “a fall from here would most certainly be fatal.”
In February 2019, the Charlotte Observer reported a rock climber fell between 100 and 150 feet to the base of Looking Glass Rock and survived. It took about five hours for rescuers to reach him after the fall.
The climber had to be carried out of the woods before being driven by ambulance to Transylvania Regional Hospital and then airlifted to Mission Hospital in Asheville, according to the Observer.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 5:42 PM.
