A STRANDED climber was rescued from a Dartmoor cliff face last weekend by the Princetown fire brigade.
The young man, thought to be in his early 20s, was from Plymouth.
He was scrambling at Vixen Tor, apparently without the specialist equipment usually associated with rock climbing, when his nerve failed and he froze in a precarious position on a ledge, according to sub officer Brett Johnson.
The Princetown crew were first on the scene.
They scaled the face and secured the man to prevent him falling — he was then taken off the face by the specialist Line Rescue team based at Camel's Head fire station.
Mr Johnson said the man was uninjured, but had been on the face for more than an hour before a friend noticed he was missing and called for help.
'It could have been a lot worse — it was a hell of a drop to the bottom,' he said.