Twenty-four-year-old Eli Van-Norman and his friend were sitting on a chair near the edge of the cliff Thursday afternoon when the friend, Paul Maasen, dropped his cell phone. Maasen says Van-Norman offered to get it, but when he went to the cliff's edge, the ground crumbled beneath him.
A California Highway Patrol helicopter dropped off an officer, who helped Van-Norman walk downstream to a clearing where he was picked up by a Shasta County sheriff's boat crew.
Van-Norman complained of neck pain and other aches after his rescue, and he was taken to the hospital for treatment.
