A Marin County man was the subject of a dramatic rescue Tuesday, after he was trapped overnight on a cliff above the pounding surf of Pacific Ocean.

California Highway Patrol Officer James Andrews says that the 33-year-old man was walking on Rodeo Beach near the sunset hour Monday, when he decided to take an up-the-cliff shortcut to his parked car.

That was the wrong idea. The man had only made it 30 feet uphill when darkness fell and the tide began to rise. He had 50 feet to go to reach the bluff above, but no visible route to get there, Andrews says.

To add another miserable element to the tale, the man hadn't brought his cell phone on his hike. He clung to the cliff overnight, and called out to passing hikers as dawn broke Tuesday.

The Southern Marin Fire Protection District responded to the hikers' 911 call, but they weren't enough: By 10:50 a.m. Tuesday, CHP’s H-32 helicopter was called to the scene to pull the man from his perilous perch. With the help of an extraction collar, the man was hooked in and lifted off the cliff in minutes.

Amazingly, Andrews says, the man wasn't injured after his wild Marin night. But something tells me he's going to be really good about bringing his cell phone with him on trips to the beach from now on.