Archived Outdoors

Man airlifted following 40-foot fall

A man was airlifted from the Graveyard Fields area of the Pisgah National Forest July 12 after falling 40 feet from Yellowstone Falls.

Five people witnessed the man fall from a ledge halfway up the 80-foot falls, reporting that he was conscious when he landed at the bottom. Haywood County Search and Rescue responded but had some difficulty reaching the site due to the vertical rockfaces going into the gorge, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Cathy Dowd.

Eventually over the course of the hours-long rescue, four teams from Haywood, Transylvania and Henderson counties were involved in the effort. The man was ultimately rescued using high-angle rescue techniques and the help of the Mountain Area Medical Airlift.

The Forest Service has no information on his medical condition, Dowd said, but he was taken to Mission Hospital in Asheville and did survive the fall. No official Forest Service trail leads to the place where the fall occurred.

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.