Alleghany Rescue Squad members work to retrieve the body of a fallen climber from the Ice Rock section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Ice climber dies in Parkway fall

The body of a veteran rock climber from Boone was found March 4 about 200 feet below the Blue Ridge Parkway at Ice Rock, a popular site for ice climbing about a half mile south of the Bluffs Restaurant at Doughton Park near Laurel Springs.

Parkway maintenance personnel saw Ralph Edward Fickel, 59, about 2 p.m. Wednesday when he was about to start climbing at Ice Rock, which remains covered in ice, said Tim Francis, the Parkway's Pisgah District ranger.

Early Thursday morning, said Francis, maintenance personnel saw Fickel's vehicle was still parked at a gate near the Devil's Gardens Overlook that closes the Parkway to vehicles due to ice and snow. The gate is about a mile south of Ice Rock.

Investigating further, said Francis, maintenance personnel looked off the lower side of Ice Rock from the Parkway and saw a body about 200 feet below near the bottom of the ice-covered cliff.

"Apparently he (Fickel) was climbing or he was setting up to climb because he had rope set up. It looked like he slipped. We're not sure if he was rappelling or what," said Francis. Emergency medical personnel in Alleghany County were called to the scene and a paramedic confirmed that Fickel was dead, said Francis. There was visible head trauma and other injuries but an autopsy is being conducted to confirm the cause of death, he added.

The Alleghany Rescue Squad was dispatched to the scene about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, said Brandon Jones, squad captain.

Second Lt. Donny Brown of the squad helped rig up ropes to lower a Stokes basket used to recover the body, while the squad's John Tracy climbed down the side of the mountain some 200 feet to the fall site. Others reached the bottom on a nearby trail.

The body was secured in a Stokes basket and pulled up the cliff with a "Z-drag," an arrangement of lines and pulleys often used in rescue situations, set up on the Parkway. Jones said it took about four hours to remove the body. "Although it was about 200 feet below the road, we guessed he fell about 70 to 100 feet," he added.

Tracy said the squad used ropes 150 feet long and had to rig up more ropes to reach the victim.

"Just the regular conditions, it was very cold and windy, which makes it hard to do any kind of a rescue because your hands get so cold and numb and you're trying to get ropes rigged up that you're going to be hanging on," said Tracy.