Heartstopping rescue
(Photo : Sonoma County Sheriff's Office)
Hiker Cody Cretini, 22, desperately clings to the side of a cliff in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area near San Francisco as he waits for rescue.

A hiker saved while desperately clinging to a cliffside during a heartstopping videotaped rescue said his outing went wrong when he decided to take a "brave" shortcut in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Footage released by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office revealed the dramatic moments when hiker Cody Cretini, 22 — clinging spread-eagled on a cliffside — was save by a rescuer who had been lowered by helicopter called out by the Southern Marin Fire District Sunday evening.

"Don't let go, man. Don't let go," the rescuer urgently told Cretini.

The helicopter used thermal imaging to pinpoint the hiker, who was clinging above the rising ocean tide in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the sheriff's office.

Cretini told ABC News that he slipped after he took a "brave" shortcut and climbed straight up the steep slope toward a trail above from a beach where he had been walking with his girlfriend.

"I decided to climb the cliff, you know, be brave, be adventurous," he told ABC.

"And so I started climbing and about 40 or 50 feet up, I get to a spot where all the rocks start crumbling, and like every rock that I grab just gets removed from the cliff."

His girlfriend called for help.

As Cretini clung precariously to the side he said he was unable to climb up — or down.

"My muscles were tired. I was cramping. And I knew if I'd fallen... it wasn't going to be good," he said.

Cretini was clinging about 50 feet below the popular but risky Batter Alexander Trail. He was eventually hoisted to safety at the top of the cliff, where he was examined and treated by paramedics.

"The victim was about 40 feet off the water line," Jason Golden, battalion chief with Southern Marin Fire District, told San Francisco's KGO-TV. "The individual was starting to lose their grip."

The operation was particularly precarious because Cretini had such a tenuous grip on the cliffside, Golden noted.

The Batter Alexander Trail is notorious for its cliffs.

"Please be very careful when you get to the cliffs," an official said. "Don't go to close to the edge, and please don't try and climb up."

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