A volunteer ran 1.5 miles in the treacherous Linville Gorge to fetch whole blood needed to stabilize a badly injured rock climber, according to Burke Rescue Inc.
The climber fell around 9:30 a.m. Sunday near Shortoff Mountain, and struck a rock pillar on the way down, Burke Rescue Inc. and SAR wrote in an Aug. 30 Facebook post.
A five-hour rescue operation followed, and it included Charlotte firefighters who are part of the state’s Search and Rescue System.
The high angle fall happened as a climbing party was ascending a 350-foot cliff that becomes a “dead vertical” at one point…