Photo: L.A. County Lifeguards
Los Angeles County Lifeguards have reported performing a nighttime hoist rescue along the cliffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula over the weekend. The department didn’t share an official news release following the rescue, but did share images and some footage of the event, which show rescue workers lifting the victim from shore via helicopter.
“Lifeguards initiated a shoreline search by hiking down the trailhead & swimming in from the rescue boat,” they wrote on Monday. “During the search, lifeguards heard a cry for help and located the victim in thick brush on the cliffside. Lifeguards hiked to the victim and lowered them to the base of the cliff, where @lacofireops performed a hoist rescue bringing the victim back to safety.”
Last night, @lacolifeguards Area10, LR100, & Baywatch Redondo responded alongside @LACoFireAirOps & @LACOFD to search for a person reported over the cliffside. Lifeguards initiated a shoreline search by hiking down the trailhead & swimming in from the Rescue Boat. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/6AaOZxm1Ty
— LACoLifeguards (@LACoLifeguards) March 2, 2026
Multiple news outlets have reported the rescue taking place in Redondo Beach, but that stretch of beach is wide open with several outlets, walkways, and stairs that would allow anybody to easily exit the beach, even at night. Nearby Palos Verdes, however, where an Instagram post from @lacolifeguards tagged the location, is littered with steep cliffs and enclosed shoreline areas starting from Malaga Cove, Flat Rock Beach, or Lunada Bay, to name a few, where it would be easy to get stranded with a rising tide, or at night. Video from the department clearly resembles those sites, although L.A. County Lifeguards did not immediately provide The Inertia with an exact location within Palos Verdes when reached for comment.
In 2022, one person died and three were injured in a nighttime fall off a cliff in Palos Verdes. The group fell while walking along the cliffs between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., but help didn’t arrive until the early hours of the next morning. First responders began rescue efforts just before 5 a.m. and one victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
