A pair of climbers stranded on a sheer Big Sur cliff in California had to be rescued by air Saturday after becoming trapped roughly 600 feet below the road, leaving a California Highway Patrol helicopter crew as their safest way out.
Footage shared by the CHP shows an H-70 helicopter holding steady over a rugged ravine near Hurricane Point while a rescue technician is lowered by cable toward the two climbers below.
According to the agency, Big Sur Fire called on CHP’s Paso Robles Air Unit for assistance at approximately 6:24 p.m.
A CHP helicopter rescue technician prepares for a dangerous hoist operation during the Big Sur cliff rescue along the California coast. (CHP – Coastal Division Air Operations)
The cliffside was so steep and unstable that the technician could not safely unclip from the hoist hook once he reached the first climber. Instead, he placed the climber into a Pelican rescue harness, and both were lifted together to a staging area where rescue crews were waiting.
The helicopter crew then flew back into the ravine and repeated the same precision hoist procedure to recover the second stranded climber.
A California Highway Patrol helicopter rescue technician secures a stranded climber during a technical hoist rescue near Hurricane Point. (CHP – Coastal Division Air Operations)
Authorities did not identify the climbers or provide details on how they ended up stranded on the Big Sur cliffside.
Social media users praised the CHP air crew and the rescue teams involved after video of the operation was posted online.
“Incredible rescue!! Well done guys!!” one commenter wrote. Another called it an “amazing job by all involved,” while another added, “Just incredible, you guys, thanks for what you do!”
Both climbers survived the ordeal, authorities said.
CHP helicopter lifts a climber and rescue technician above the Big Sur coastline during a hoist rescue. (CHP – Coastal Division Air Operations)
“These high-risk, low-frequency rescues are exactly what CHP Air Operations personnel continuously train for,” the agency said. “There is no room for error when operating in steep terrain, under hoist, and in challenging environmental conditions.”
The cliffside rescue followed two separate Aug. 9 rescue missions for the same H-70 crew.
A CHP air crew hoists a stranded climber to safety during a rescue near Hurricane Point in Big Sur, Calif. (CHP – Coastal Division Air Operations)
The air unit first hoisted an injured 13-year-old hiker from Pinnacles National Park, working with a Paso Robles Fire Department helicopter rescue technician, CHP said.
Later that day, the crew pulled a person who suffered severe injuries in a fall from a waterfall in Big Sur Gorge to safety.
H-70 then responded to another call in the remote Los Padres National Forest, where a hunter suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration was brought aboard using a hover step-on maneuver and flown to waiting medics in King City.
