Pennsylvania Woman Drowns at Glacier National Park After Being Swept Over Waterfalls

Pennsylvania Woman Drowns Glacier National Park Swept Over Waterfalls

By Jackelyn Cornejo , Parent Herald Jun 26, 06:14 am

Photo: (Photo : JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images )

A woman from Pennsylvania drowned on Sunday at Glacier National Park in Montana after being swept over a series of waterfalls and cornered underwater by a wood.

Pennsylvania Woman Drowns at Glacier National Park

Witnesses reported that 26-year-old Gillian Tones tripped on wet rocks and dipped into Virginia Creek between St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls in the afternoon, as declared by the National Park Service on Tuesday.

According to the National Park Service, Tones was quickly swept away by the chilly, quickly moving water, outpouring over numerous smaller waterfalls, and was cornered underwater by a block of wood for several minutes until other park visitors' heroic efforts recovered her from the river.

At about 5:20 p.m., the park's bulletin got multiple 911 calls about the circumstances, and a patrol person reached at the location about 25 minutes later.

Eyewitnesses who had taken out Tones from the water tried to revive her until a park patrol person and emergency personnel arrived. However, the 26-year-old did not recover consciousness, and revival attempts were halted around 7 p.m. Her body was transferred to the medical examiner in Missoula, Montana, for a postmortem.

The National Park Service conveyed its heartfelt solace to the family and friends of Tones and requested that the public honor their solitude during this time.

Hiker Passed Away From a Waterfall Overlook

According to the US National Park Service, a hiker dreadfully fell to her death from a waterfall overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina over the weekend.

Nancy Sampson, from Greer, South Carolina, was visiting the park around 12:15 pm on Sepetember 23 last year, when she slipped over a cliff near the Glassmine Falls overlook.

Rescue teams, notified of the incident, located her approximately 150 feet below using rappelling gear. They confirmed she had died from the fall and recovered her body, as stated by the park service.

Robert Sampson, Nancy's husband, said that their family, including her siblings and nieces and nephews, was deeply grieving.

Nancy, a retired human resources director who also worked part-time at an Ingles market in Greer, was eagerly awaiting Robert's retirement.

Details surrounding the circumstances of Nancy Sampson's fall were not immediately available. However, the National Park Service noted the difficulty in obtaining a clear view of Glassmine Falls due to its location and intermittent flow, advising visitors to bring binoculars for better chances of observation.

The overlook is situated near milepost 361 of the parkway, about 23 miles northeast of Asheville and approximately 85 miles north of Greer.

This tragedy adds to a series of fatalities among hikers last summer in various locations worldwide, including incidents of falls and extreme weather conditions. In August, a woman died after a mountain fall in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, following fatalities on Scotland's perilous Aonach Eagach ridge.

A porter passed away in July during an ascent of K2, the world's second-highest peak. In June, a teenager died in scorching 119°F (48.3°C) temperatures while hiking in southwest Texas's Big Bend National Park, where his stepfather badly crashed his car during a search for help.