Big Sur cyclist survives 100-foot fall down Hwy. 1 landslide after ignoring worker’s warning
A man survived a 100-foot fall down a Big Sur cliff after biking through a landslide last week, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Lucerne Valley resident Cody Mortensen, 28, biked up to the Regent’s Slide in Big Sur on Aug. 9.
The Regent’s Slide, located about 28 miles north of the Monterey-San Luis Obispo county line, is the last of the three Big Sur slides requiring repairs on Highway 1.
At about 9:25 a.m., Mortensen met a Papich Construction worker about two miles south of the slide and asked for some water, the CHP said.
The construction worker gave Mortensen a bottle of water and warned him if he tried to cross the road closure he would likely die.
Mortensen biked into the slide anyway, and about an hour later, a California State Parks ranger searching the area spotted a backpack and bloody arm about 100 feet down a cliff below.
The park ranger then called in a search-and-rescue team.
Mortensen suffered a laceration to his forearm and possible head trauma, but he still was able to climb down to the beach below.
There, the State Parks ranger and the Big Sur Fire Department rescued the cyclist. Mortensen was first loaded into an ambulance and then a helicopter to travel to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas.
“Mortensen is being charged for the wanton disregard of failing to obey a person directing traffic and failing to obey the traffic signs and signals,” a CHP statement said. “He also endangered the lives of rescue personnel who had to traverse an active slide.”
