Raleigh firefighters help rescue hiker after 50-foot fall on Grandfather Mountain

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Raleigh firefighters and other first responders rescued a hiker by helicopter after a “significant fall” on Grandfather Mountain this weekend.

A 21-year-old man fell about 50 feet on Grandfather Mountain, located about 20 miles from Boone in western North Carolina, around 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, according to the Raleigh Professional Fire Fighters Association.

“Based on (the) mechanism of injury and initial medical assessment it was decided a hoist operation would be needed to get the subject to definitive care as soon as possible,” according to Linville-Central Rescue Squad on Facebook.

Raleigh Fire Department Capt. Daniel Richardson and Senior Firefighter Jason Ceisner are both members of the North Carolina Urban Search & Rescue Task Force 8, which is made up of firefighters from Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill departments and Wake County Emergency Management Service. The team is often deployed statewide for major events including rescues, weather-events and explosions.

The team had to spend about an hour “dodging storms,” before they were able to rescue the hiker, according to the firefighter’s association.

“(They) performed a successful aviation rescue of a person who was injured on Grandfather Mountain this afternoon, along with aviation members of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol,” according to the task force on Facebook. “Awesome Daniel and Jason!”

This story was originally published August 16, 2026 at 12:49 PM with the headline “Raleigh firefighters help rescue hiker after 50-foot fall on Grandfather Mountain.”