Two men were rescued from the Rimrocks late Tuesday morning after a climbing excursion left them stranded on a ledge from which they could not climb back to their starting point.
The men had been about halfway down a steep, approximately 35-foot slope when they tried to climb back up and realized they couldn't, Billings Fire Department Battalion Chief Kevin Johnson said. They continued descending to a ledge, below which was about 60 feet of "straight vertical" rock face, Johnson said.
The Billings Fire Department pulled the men to safety by about 12:10 p.m. The rescue took place along the Rims in an area below mile marker 4 on Highway 3. A third man who was with the group had climbed back to safety without assistance before rescuers arrived.
The ledge the men were stranded on was about 30 feet in length, with some trees and brush. There was about four feet of ground space extending from the rock behind before the 60-foot drop.