Kevin Junge Recovery Fund

If you haven't heard by now, Kevin had a major climbing accident on October 14.

Kevin is an avid climber, boater, and overall athlete living in Tryon North Carolina.

We were out at Gee Creek bluff near the Ocoee, 3 of us had just got off kayaking the Ocoee and came over the mountain to climb at Gee Creek. We had just finished a route and Kevin was busy setting up the next top rope. The main climbing wall is on a big ledge that you can easily hike to but over the edge is between 40-60 drop. We were moving the gear from the bottom of the climb to where Kev was setting up the next climb. As we pushed up through the small pass-through in the rock i could hear Kev start yelling and the rope immediately whizzing through the anchors and down the rock, I heard him hit a few different things and then the trees at the bottom. I never actually saw Kevin fall but i know where he fell from it was a minimum of at least 70 feet. We immediately had 911 dialed but presumed he was probably dead. Mostly jagged rocks and ledges and the hill below is steep and filled with boulders. We had to find a spot to scramble down the rock due to already being on the ledge. It took about 5 minutes to track down where Kevin had landed. Somehow fortunately he managed to not take any blows to the head and was responsive when we found him.

When we found him he was laying in a pile of sticks like it was a recliner. Holding up his obviously broken leg, two sticks protruded through his calf. His right arm was also noticeably broken, he was mostly concerned with his back and pelvis areas. We were able to jam a few more sticks in to help support his back until Rescue showed up. The first ranger showed up in about 30 minutes, with a group of young kids in flip-flops. We thought this was his team at first and we'd never get him out of there but they were just people that he found in the parking lot to help carry things and take notes. It was about 45 more minutes until rescue showed up. Due to the wind at the time, probably a 50 mph gust, they wouldn't airlift him from the spot of the accident, and there was no way to get him up to the trail so they allowed us to cut trees out in a straight path down the mountain. The rescue team followed with Kevin using rigging systems to lower him down the mountain. Once we got him to the bottom they were able to get him to a place where they could Airlift him down to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. Overall, I believe over 50 people were involved in the volunteer rescue. It took about 5 hours to get him out.

Kev was flown in on Saturday night, underwent testing all night and was put into surgery on Sunday morning.

Kevin's final injury count was a broken pelvis that required 3 screws, broken vertebrae, and a fractured right arm. A broken right leg that needed a rod and a good number of stitches.

Needless to say, he's gonna have a lot of medical and personal bills to pay. Kev has two kids and a manual labour job and is going to be out of commission for a good while. We're hoping to be able to raise some money to help Kevin pay his day-to-day bills and cover some of the medical costs. No idea how much the medical bills will end up being as he's still in the hospital but I would assume it'll be close to 6 figures.