49 on the main face<\/a>. Roper said that the top of the crag has numerous bolts and anchors that rock climbers use to ascend sport routes.<\/p>\nRoper said hikers do occasionally ascend the peak\u2019s rock face via a technical scramble, but reaching the top by foot requires detailed knowledge of the route, as well as proper gear.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to get beta from people or have a guidebook to know where you\u2019re going,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people think Mount Yonah is an easy hike. We pluck people off of it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Series of Unfortunate Decisions<\/h2>\n At the top of the peak, Roper and his team fixed webbing and ropes to natural anchors, and he then climbed into a safety harness. He rappelled down to the hiker just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very apologetic when I reached him,\u201d Roper said. \u201cHe said he\u2019d gotten on the wrong line and just got over his head. I appreciated his attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roper affixed a harness to the hiker, and then the two of them rappelled down 250 vertical feet to the nearest flat terrain.<\/p>\nRoper helped the hiker put on a harness before rappelling down with him<\/span> (Photo: White County Public Safety)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cHe was really easy to coach back down once I got the harness on him,\u201d Roper added.<\/p>\n
The hiker told Roper that he planned to follow the scrambling route up the peak, but\u00a0lost his way and quickly found himself unable to ascend or descend. Rather than chance it, he decided to call for rescue.<\/p>\n
Roper praised the man\u2019s decision to call for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a series of unfortunate decisions that got him into that hairy predicament,\u201d Roper said. \u201cI\u2019m glad he decided to swallow his pride and give us a call. Had he attempted to downclimb or push to the top, there was a low probability of him getting out of the situation without a catastrophic injury, or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Plea for Proper Footwear<\/h2>\n The hiker, Roper said, was not properly equipped for such a strenuous climb, because he was wearing sneaker and he carried a massive and heavy backpack.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people I see on Yonah are in boots,\u201d Roper said. \u201cHe seemed to be the least equipped of anyone I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roper frequently climbs and trains at Mount Yonah, and said that when he sees hikers scrambling the rock face, they usually have\u00a0helmets, day packs, and either hard-soled hiking boots or approach shoes.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because one wrong move, Roper said, can quickly lead a hiker into terrain that\u2019s suited for rock climbers.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wearing running shoes and a backpack, a hiker attempted an unroped ascent of Mount Yonah, a popular climbing crag in Georgia. Rescuers plucked him from a tiny ledge. A screengrab from the drone footage of a rescue on Mount Yonah (Photo: White County Public Safety) Updated August 27, 2026 12:48PM Outside\u00a0features editor Frederick Dreier called<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}