A California Highway Patrol helicopter crew pulled an injured rock climber from a sheer granite cliff face at Courtright Reservoir last Friday after the person took a hard fall on the popular formation known as Power Dome.
The call for help came in at roughly 12:45 p.m., according to CHP’s Coastal Division Air Operations, which dispatched a chopper from its base at Paso Robles Airport with a pilot and flight officer aboard. The crew made the run into the southwestern Sierra Nevada knowing they would need to maneuver tight against the rock to reach the stranded climber.
A helicopter rescue technician from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office joined the effort, working with the two-person CHP crew to rig the hoist. The team lowered the line to the injured climber, secured the person, and lifted them free of the cliff. From there, the helicopter flew the patient to an ambulance crew waiting nearby, who took over for the hospital run.
CHP withheld both the climber’s identity and the severity of their injuries. The agency routinely handles such search-and-rescue missions across California, with each aircraft carrying a pilot and a flight officer who doubles as a paramedic and hoist operator.
Power Dome draws climbers to the Courtright Reservoir area for its massive exposed granite faces, but the same features that make it appealing also complicate rescues when falls occur. Friday’s operation required the helicopter to hold position extremely close to the vertical rock while the hoist did its work.
“Our crews rely on the collaborative efforts of our partner agencies, particularly our Helicopter Rescue Technician team members, in order to ensure the safest outcome,” CHP wrote in its statement on the rescue.
The agency’s Air Operations arm handles everything from missing-person searches to medical evacuations in remote terrain, often coordinating with county sheriff’s teams and other local responders. Each mission pairs the flight crew with whoever has the right specialized training for the conditions on the ground—or in this case, on the cliff.
The climber’s condition after transfer to the ambulance was not disclosed.