Tourist survives 250-foot slide down Big Sur cliff

[August 05, 2008]  BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) -- A tourist is nursing only cuts and bruises after sliding 250 feet down a cliff on California's coast.

Twenty-year-old Jost Ben of Wilnsdorf, Germany, had been tossing a football with friends Sunday at a traffic pullout perched 400 feet above the Pacific. After a stray toss, he climbed over the edge to retrieve the football.

Monterey County Sheriff's Sgt. Garrett Sanders says Ben "just started sliding." A sheriff's team rappelled down, strapped Ben to a harness and helped him scale the cliff.

Ben was treated for a gash to his face and other cuts. He wasn't able to recover the football, but Sanders noted: "He's lucky he's alive."

___

Information from: The Monterey County Herald, http://www.montereyherald.com/

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.