On Easter Sunday, a couple encountered danger while taking a walk along the coastline in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the sun set, 22-year-old Cody Cretini from Louisiana and his girlfriend were walking along the relentless waves of the Alexander Battery coastline in the famous beautiful Golden Gate National Recreation Area. However, they ran into trouble in the area.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department rescue helicopter, Henry-1, responded as night fell.
In the evening, Mr. Cretini took a shortcut. The Sonoma Sheriff told ABC News that this self-proclaimed adventurer decided to “bravely” climb the rugged cliff to reach a small path on the ridge rather than taking the longer coastal route. His escape was attributed to the tactical flight officer Larry Matelli and pilot Nigel Cooper of Henry-1.
“I started climbing. The cliff was about 40 or 50 feet high. When I reached a certain point, all the rocks started crumbling. Every rock I grabbed onto fell from the cliff,” the avid hiker said during a video call. Cretini’s girlfriend stopped a passerby who ran to the parking lot, found a phone, and called 911 for help.
Around 7:40 p.m., the Southern Marin Fire Department requested Henry-1 for a nighttime rescue as Mr. Cretini had fallen from the cliff, facing the serious danger of rolling into the waters below. The thermal imaging equipment on the helicopter aided in pinpointing the stranded hiker on the southern Rodeo Beach, about 50 to 60 feet from the trail.
“Mr. Cretini told me he was stuck there for about an hour before being rescued,” Deputy Matelli told Epoch Times. “He tried to climb up the cliff, reach the path above the beach, but got stuck and slipped to that position.”
Deputy Matelli and Mr. Cooper received extensive training in aerial rescues. They planned to approach in flight, lower Deputy Matelli on a long line, and rescue the stranded hiker. The method was risky as a slight misplacement could have sent the person clinging to the rocks tumbling down the cliff, with the rotational force causing both to deviate from the center.
“I was exhausted, muscles cramping,” Cretini told ABC News, adding that at times he was only holding onto the rocks with one finger. “I knew if I fell, that was it.”
Deputy Matelli secured a “horse collar” rescue strap on the young man but warned him to keep holding onto the rocks, as he wasn’t yet secured. Letting go at that point could have been fatal.
“Hey, don’t let go, buddy,” Matelli’s deputy was heard telling him in a later video released by the Sonoma Sheriff. “Don’t release, okay?”
With only a spotlight on the cliff as a reference, the pilots couldn’t fully rely on vision but more on gestures and their sense of everything going smoothly. The rescue went smoothly, with the daredevil and the deputy both lifted from the rocks and returned to solid ground. They were taken by the Southern Marin firefighters, and the adventurous hiker was unharmed.
Despite the unfortunate encounter on Easter Sunday, Cretini “was unharmed, just had a few scratches,” Deputy Matelli told Epoch Times, mentioning that the man had flown back to Louisiana. “He was greatly relieved after being rescued and thanked us.”
(Provided by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department)