Full Notification

**NEWS RELEASE**

Monday, June 4, 2012

Santa Barbara--At 4:21 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, 2012, Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue (SBCSAR) was called out to assist an 11-year-old female and her 35-year-old mother who were stuck halfway up a rock at Painted Cave Monument in the Los Padres National Forest.

The mother and daughter, who are from the Santa Barbara area, had parked their car on Painted Cave Road just above the monument area and took what they thought was a trail leading to the Painted Cave site. Instead, they discovered that the trail traversed over a rock face a couple hundred feet above the cave.

In attempting to climb down the rock face to the cave the pair became stuck and unable to go any farther. A group of motorcyclists, which had stopped on the road to look at the Painted Cave site, heard the cries for help and contacted the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Emergency Dispatch Center.
Dispatchers then directed the Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue (SBCSAR) team to the scene.

Eleven members of SBCSAR responded to assist the stranded pair. Once on scene, rescue members climbed to the top of the cliff and set up an anchor system for ropes to reach the subjects. Two SBCSAR members then rappelled down about 100-feet to the stranded pair where they outfitted them with safety helmets, gloves, and harnesses.

The young daughter was then safely lowered to the ground by one of the SBCSAR members who performed a "pick-off" rope rescue technique. Once they were off the rope, the second SAR personnel brought the mother down the side of the cliff by rappelling. Both subjects were evaluated by SAR EMT's and found to be uninjured and in good health.

Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue is an all-volunteer unit of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office. For more information about this incident or the team, contact SAR PIO Nelson Trichler at 805-698-0752.
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Photos Courtesy of Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue:

Photo 1- SBCSAR team member Ben Stefanski with both subjects (an 11-year-old female with her mother after rappelling down to secure them to harnesses on the side of a cliff above Painted Cave).

Photo 2 - SBCSAR team member Kevin Hess with the mother rappelling down a cliff above Painted Cave.