Algoma rescuers rappel down cliff to rescue man who fell to Lake Michigan beach below

ALGOMA - Rescue personnel rappelled down a cliff on the Lake Michigan shoreline last week to rescue a 78-year-old man who fell 80 to 100 feet off the cliff to the beach below.

The Kewaunee County Sheriff's Department received a call Thursday morning, Feb. 25, from family members who requested a welfare check on the man, Sheriff Matt Joski said.

The Algoma Police Department was alerted to look into the matter because the man lives in the city, and the subsequent search by officers and sheriff's deputies found the man's car shortly before noon on the side of State 42 about four miles south of Algoma. The man then was found on the beach, apparently having fallen over the edge near where his car was parked.

Members of the Algoma Fire & Rescue Department then responded to the scene. Fire Chief Thomas Ackerman said the location doesn't have any nearby access to the beach from above, such as a stairway or ladder, so the rescue crew needed to rappel down the cliff — a height estimated by responders at 80 to 100 feet, Ackerman said — to get to the man.

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After reaching the beach, the responders checked the man for any emergency medical issues, then secured him to a stretcher and lifted him to street level. He was conscious and alert and taken to a Green Bay hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening, but no other word on his condition was available.

"He seemed in pretty good shape, a little cold," Ackerman said about the man's condition during the rescue.

Rappelling down a cliff might not be part of a normal rescue operation, but Ackerman said his crew had recent experience with the task.

"Quite ironically, we were pretty close to the same location last fall when somebody had fallen in the same area," he said. "So, we had some familiarity with that type of rescue."

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Algoma rescuers rappel down cliff to rescue man who fell to Lake Michigan beach below