Last Updated on May 30, 2026 2:53 pm
Multiple agencies responded to the Watauga River on the west side of Beech Mountain on Friday, May 29, after a local man fell off a cliff into the river and sustained serious injuries.
Officers from the Beech Mountain Police Department were first to reach the patient, accessing him on the far side of the river. As additional units arrived, rescue crews developed a plan to stabilize and extricate the injured man from the rugged riverbank.
Rescuers constructed a high line — a rope system used to move a patient across water — to transport the man from the far side of the Watauga River to the east bank. Avery EMS then assumed patient care and transported him to Fall Creek VFD Station 2, where a medical evacuation helicopter from Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem was waiting to fly him to further treatment.
Agencies responding to the scene included Linville-Central Rescue Squad, Avery EMS, Fall Creek VFD, Cove Creek VFD, Avery County Sheriff's Office, Watauga Emergency Management, Avery Emergency Management, Beech Mountain Police Department, and the NC State Highway Patrol.
The condition of the patient was not released.
