A 55-year-old man remains in a North Georgia hospital after falling from the rock face of Yonah Mountain over the weekend, authorities said.
The man lost his footing while rappelling on the rock face and fell about 100 feet onto the mountain’s first plateau, White County Fire Department spokeswoman Anna Newberry told AJC.com. Firefighters received the call about 4 p.m. Sunday.
Several rescue teams had to work together to get the man down since he was on one of the mountain’s three plateaus, Newberry said.
“You can’t just get to it,” she said. “You have to repel to it.”
Members of White County Fire Services, Lee Arrendale State Prison firefighters, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Cleveland Fire Department and Community Emergency Response Team Firefighters Rehab assisted with the rescue. There were 21 responders at the scene.
The rescue teams had to set up a rope system and used a Stokes basket to move the injured hiker, Newberry said. The rescue lasted 3½ hours.
“We had to be careful, because the more you moved him, the more pain you caused him,” she said. “We’ve had many people fall off there, and it’s scary.”
A helicopter was not available at the time to assist in the operation, so the man was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. He suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
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