La Quinta man rescued after dangling upside down over a cliff for 13 hours

(Zack Warburg / Noozhawk)
(Zack Warburg / Noozhawk)
(Zack Warburg / Noozhawk)

A La Quinta man spent a whopping 13 hours dangling over an Isla Vista cliff, with a rope wrapped around his injured leg, until finally being rescued on Monday.

The unnamed 34-year-old was discovered at about 2 p.m. by people walking by on the beach below. They told authorities they saw the guy hanging from the cliff side about 15 feet above the beach. They called police, but were able to cut him down before authorities arrived.

The man told responders that he had no feeling in his leg and he was taken to a nearby hospital. According to KEYT, the man suffered a “sever leg fracture”.

“He was not in good shape, he had been hanging upside down for 13 hours,” Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni told Noozhawk. He added that the man was lucky someone was walking that stretch of beach on Monday.

It is believed that the man had been rappelling down the cliff or climbing it with a rope, fell, and then the rope had been tied around his calf.