A 23-year-old man fell to his death and a woman had to be rescued from a cliff at Torrey Pines overnight, fire officials said.

University of California San Diego officials confirmed the two were students at the nearby campus but declined to release further information until the victim’s next of kin had been notified.

The woman, also 23, called 911 from her dying cellphone about 11:45 p.m. to get help after the two fell down the cliff in the area of the Torrey Pines Gliderport, San Diego fire Battalion Chief David Connor told San Diego News Video.

Fire dispatchers weren’t able to re-contact her, so crews used GPS to locate her cellphone signal. Connor said it put them within 50 feet of the cliff top where she had fallen.


Lifeguards drove along the beach and a fire helicopter crew used a spotlight to find her. Crews fixed ropes and rappelled down about 75 feet to the woman, Connor said. He said the steep ravine is known to lifeguards as Hully Gully.

Firefighters secured the woman with ropes and continued down another 50 or 60 feet until they found the man’s body, Connor said.

The body was lowered to the beach in a litter-type basket, where San Diego police and the Medical Examiner’s representatives took charge of it, a fire spokeswoman said.

The woman was able to climb and walk up the cliff side with help from the ropes and firefighters. She had minor injuries and was taken to a hospital. Connor said there was a language barrier trying to communicate with her, but he did not say what language she speaks.


She was located about 1 a.m. and it took about an hour to get her to the top.

Connor said that area of the cliffs is popular with UCSD students and others, who often go there at night.

“These are very dangerous cliffs in the daytime; trying to negotiate them in the nighttime hours with minimal light and probably not the proper footwear can result in injuries and loss of life like we lost tonight,” Connor said.

He said that a few days ago, a large slab of sandstone cliff fell at Torrey Pines State Beach and hit a woman on the head. She also suffered a broken leg.