Cherohala – A group of staff members with the Cranbrook School from Michigan had to be rescued from the high elevation mountains of Graham County on Saturday.
Tory Lynnes and Keith Eller of the Graham County Rescue Squad – and Brian Stevens of Graham County EMS – braved extreme winter weather conditions, consisting of several inches of ice and snow with drifts over knee high, 4-degree temperatures, and winds gusting 40-50 mph to help get several of the staff members from various trails.
The group had gone into the woods on several different trails, with plans to come out at trailheads located at Mud Gap, Beech Gap, Big Fat Gap and the Rattlesnake No. 2 trailhead in Tennessee, to be picked up by other staff members who could only get to Spirit Ridge on the Cherohala Skyway in their 2-wheel drive vans.
The group contacted Heath Emmons of the U.S. Forest Service for help, who in turn contacted Lynnes around 10:30 a.m. Lynnes set the rescue operation in action.
One group of seven was rescued at Beech Gap around 2:35 p.m. and another group of seven was rescued there at 11 p.m. Some of them had been in Jeffrey’s Hell.
The rescue mission lasted from 10:30 a.m. until midnight.
The Cranbrook School has been coming to Graham County and bringing students to train them in winter weather wilderness survival. Fortunately the students had not yet arrived this time.
This was not the case during the “Blizzard of 1993.” A large group of Cranbrook students and staff – along with other hikers – had to be rescued from Slickrock, Joyce Kilmer Forest, the Appalachian Trail and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Over 100 hikers were rescued, many by 1-of-3 rescue helicopters based in Robbinsville.