Two climbers trapped on a dangerous Big Sur cliff, roughly 600 feet below the roadway, were pulled to safety in a dramatic helicopter rescue Saturday evening.
The rescue, captured on video, happened Aug. 22 near Hurricane Point, just north of Big Sur, the California Highway Patrol said. Big Sur Fire called in support from the CHP Paso Robles Air Unit at about 6:24 p.m.
After CHP’s H-70 helicopter reached the area, the crew located the two climbers stranded in a steep chute well beneath the road.
Because the cliffside terrain was extremely hazardous, authorities determined the climbers could not safely disconnect from the helicopter’s hoist hook without direct assistance, requiring the use of a specially trained helicopter rescue technician.
The technician was lowered from the aircraft to the stranded climbers while still secured to the helicopter’s hoist system.
Once positioned on the slope, the rescue technician placed the first climber into a Pelican rescue harness. The helicopter team then carried out a “double extraction,” lifting both the technician and the climber away from the cliff and delivering them to emergency crews waiting at a staging area.
The helicopter then returned to the cliffside to reach the second climber.
Using the same technical hoist rescue method, crews safely removed the remaining climber, bringing both people out of the perilous Big Sur terrain.
CHP described the operation as the kind of high-risk rescue its air crews repeatedly train to handle, warning that the combination of steep terrain, helicopter hoisting and difficult environmental conditions leaves virtually no room for mistakes.
“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.”
Officials did not immediately release additional information about the climbers, including what led them to become stranded.
The dramatic rescue occurred against the backdrop of another emergency in the region, the Timber Fire, which began Aug. 8 in the Los Padres National Forest.
Hurricane Point is outside the fire’s evacuation zone. As of Monday, the blaze had scorched more than 12,000 acres and was about 25% contained.
CHP thanked the agencies and personnel involved in the operation for their coordination and professionalism in pulling off the dangerous rescue.
