Hiker Sustains Minor Injuries in 150-Foot Fall

An Inglewood woman attempting to hike down a steep, fog-covered cliff in Palos Verdes Estates on Thursday morning escaped with only minor injuries after she lost her footing and tumbled 150 feet to the bottom, authorities said.

The cliff, in the 800 block of Paseo del Mar, contained some partial trails, but “you’d have to be a mountain goat to climb (down) it,” Police Sgt. Ron Ecklos said.

The woman, Mary Lou Rand, 37, was hiking down the cliff with her nephew about 11:30 a.m. when she lost her balance and “rolled and tumbled” along the grassy slope to a soft sandy area below, said Bud Palmer, a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Her nephew, who authorities said is in his 20s, notified rescue personnel.

Rand was treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s emergency room for cuts and bruises and possible broken ribs.

Ecklos said Rand, one of about half a dozen people a year to tumble from Palos Verdes cliffs, was lucky to be alive.

Palmer said the sand gave her a soft landing. “It’s not real rocky terrain. If you were going to fall off a cliff, that’s a nice one to do it on,” he said.

Still, he said he could not understand why she chose that route down the cliff above Malaga Cove, noting that a nearby path is so wide that vehicles can drive down it.

Palmer said he and other paramedics drove down the path in an ambulance, scrambled over a sandy area to get to Rand and then carried her in a stretcher back to the ambulance. He said a helicopter airlift would have been the most effective way to transport her, but thick fog made such a rescue impossible.

Palmer said Rand had difficulty breathing because of her rib injuries but was conscious when rescuers arrived. She did not have anything to say about the accident, Palmer said.