Riverside County sheriff’s deputies rescued a terrified hiker from a cliff on the Pacific Crest Trail on Sunday, April 13, as she was “death gripping” an outcropping and her legs trembled as she planted her feet on a ledge about 4 inches wide.
Deputy Jason Beeman, who rappelled from the Rescue 9 helicopter to the hiker, recorded the operation with a camera just inches from the woman. The sheriff’s aviation unit posted the tape to its Instagram page.
The hiker got stuck in the Whitewater area of the trail just south of the San Bernardino County line, the Instagram post said. She texted 911 around 10:30 a.m.
The crew is heard on the recording discussing a rescue plan and how the helicopter should approach the cliff. Beeman is lowered to a spot below the woman and then is lifted to her.
Beeman considered a couple of ways of fastening a harness to her so she could be hoisted to the helicopter, but he said in an interview with Fox Weather that he decided that would be too difficult because the woman was wearing a backpack bulging with hiking equipment and she was hugging the wall.
The hiker had been stuck for about an hour and was exhausted, Beeman said.
“I felt time was of the essence. and that we wouldn’t be able to use either one of those successfully without knocking her off the ledge,” said Beeman, who appeared on Fox with the crew chief, Deputy Cory Allen.
The Instagram post said: “The rescue specialist determined the safest option was to bear hug her and climb to the top. He just could not risk asking her to lift her arms, that she was clearly death gripping the cliff with, in order to place a rescue strap on.”
But even the new plan was difficult to execute.
Beeman tells the woman to wrap her legs around him and use her arms to hold on.
“No, not my ears!” Beeman shouts. “Grab my back!”
The hiker shrieks as the helicopter hoists them. But they are being dragged along the face of the cliff, and Beeman tells the crew to pull them away. Soon, they land on the top of the ridge. The woman has cuts and scrapes on her legs.
It is then that Beeman is able to put a harness on the woman, and she is hoisted into the helicopter.
“As you can see, this was an intense, technical rescue,” the Instagram post says.
This year, sheriff’s spokeswoman Lt. Deirdre Vickers said, Rescue 9 has plucked at least a half-dozen hikers out of jams on the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile route that spans the West Coast from Mexico to Canada.
Vickers encouraged hikers to research their route, be prepared for weather changes and carry a communications device.
“The section of the PCT that runs through our county has extreme elevation changes with associated weather changes where storms can come in at high altitudes and cause cold-related injuries, altitude sickness and freezing ground conditions where mountaineering equipment is necessary,” Vickers wrote in an email on Tuesday. “There are many desert areas where high heat can cause heat-related injuries like heat exhaustion, stroke, and dehydration. We also get broken ankles and legs from hikers as well as other traumatic injuries.”
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