Cyclist trapped on ‘treacherous’ cliff saved in night rescue, California officials say

Rescuers pulled a stranded bicyclist off a “treacherous” cliff early Tuesday morning in rough Sierra County terrain, officials say.

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue team was called in after a California Highway Patrol helicopter couldn’t extricate the mountain biker from a cliff near Butcher Ranch Trail, a Facebook post said.

The rescue team hiked to the cliff, making voice contact with the man about 2:30 a.m., but a nearby waterfall prevented them from communicating with him.

Using ropes, the team lowered a rescuer about 30 feet down the cliff to the man, who was stranded on a ledge about 30 feet above the ground, the post said.

“Miraculously, the subject only suffered minor injuries and was in good shape, aside from being extremely cold,” rescuers wrote.

The rescuer fitted the man with a harness and the team lifted them both to safety.

“When riding the backcountry, bad things can happen to good people in the blink of an eye,” rescuers wrote, advising people to carry GPS locators.

“If this mountain biker’s crash would not have been witnessed, it is likely there would not have been a thumbs up at the end of the search,” rescuers wrote.

This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Cyclist trapped on ‘treacherous’ cliff saved in night rescue, California officials say."