TORREY PINES STATE BEACH (CNS) - Lifeguards came to the rescue Tuesday of a hiker who got stuck -- in the buff -- while trying to make her way down a 500-foot-high coastal cliff to a beach popular with nudists.
The naked 27-year-old woman wound up precariously perched on a ledge about one-third of the way down the bluff about 2 p.m., uninjured but afraid to continue back up or down to Black's Beach below, lifeguard Lt. Andy Lerum said.
Emergency crews procured some clothing and sent a female lifeguard down to the trapped woman via safety lines, Lerum said. After the hiker donned the loaner garments along with a safety helmet, the guard strapped her into a rescue harness, and the pair were lowered gently onto the beach several hundred yards north of Torrey Pines Gliderport.
At that point, the woman was ticketed for ignoring posted warnings to stay off the sheer and unstable sandstone cliffs in the area. She then walked back up a well-traveled trail to where she'd parked her car.
Black's Beach has been widely considered a "clothing optional" recreation spot for decades, though lifeguards began handing out public nudity citations there some 12 years ago. Despite the effort to enforce a standard of modesty there, however, some insist on enjoying the scenic stretch of shoreline au naturel.
