Photo shows a man who fell off a cliff in Montaña de Oro State Park strapped into a rescue stretcher after being brought up by CAL FIRE firefighters. Photo courtesy CAL FIRE
CAL FIRE/SLO County Fire responded in the dark to an emergency in Montaña de Oro State Park where a man had fallen off one of the steep, bluff top cliffs.
According to a post on the CAL FIRE X account, emergency crews responded at 7:39 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 to MDO, “for a male subject who fell down a cliff near the Bluff Trail.”
The Bluff Trail is a 3-plus mile, mostly flat, dirt pathway that follows the edge of the bluff and in some places it’s over 50-feet above the shore below.
The bluff drops down to solid rock in most places, with a few small sandy beaches interspersed along the route that are accessible by stairs.
It is a heavily traveled trail, the most accessible and busiest in the park.
It’s not a difficult trail nor is it very tricky to follow in daytime, but when one runs out of real estate, the drop to the bottom can be deadly for the victims and very difficult for rescuers.
However, it sounds like this particular rescue went smoothly.
“The subject has been extricated up to the top of the cliff,” the X post read, “and is currently being evaluated for injuries by paramedics.”
Such cliff rescues that require rock climbing gear, are part of the special training for firefighters in Los Osos, which has the nearest CAL FIRE stationhouse, and for Morro Bay firefighters as well, who occasionally are called to rescue someone that foolishly climbed Morro Rock.
