ALBANY COUNTY — A woman, who police say was intoxicated, falls to the bottom of a 60-foot cliff. A man, enjoying an outing with friends, slips off the top of  a dam, down a steep spillway  coated with mud and debris, and lands on rocks below the spillway,  a fall of 35 feet. Both survive. Both are rescued. But their salvation required rescuers trained in the art of “rope rescue.”

Three southern Albany County  fire companies — Slingerlands, Guilderland Center, and Onesquethaw — have people trained in rope rescue, according to Mary Alice Molgard, a spokeswoman for the Berne Fire Department. The Berne volunteers helped in the operation that  brought a 28-year-old man back to higher ground and a waiting ambulance last Saturday at Helderbeg Lake in Berne.

In the retrieval of the woman from the base of the cliff at John Boyd Thacher Thacher Park in the evening of May 24, Albany Sheriff  Department search-rescue team members  were assisted by rope rescue specialists from the three southern county fire departments, plus Berne and New Salem fire departments, and the New York State Police.

A similar turnout mobilized  for the rescue at the dam. Rescues of this kind require a big commitment of resources from first responders.

The first and necessary step in both rescues was to reach the fallen person.

At Helderberg Lake, Molgard said events unfolded this way. A party of 10 or more made their way down the steep and difficult terrain alongside the spillway. The spillway, muddy and full of debris, offered no sure footing.

Once the man was reached, he was strapped into a Stokes basket, a lightweight litter designed for immobilizing and then lifting fall victims.  The rescuers carried two sets of rope, one for backup. Once secured to a rope, the basket and its human cargo were pulled up by  about 20 “able-bodied men.” All together, it took around 30 minutes to get the man to safety and into the ambulance that took him to Albany Medical Center.

His name had not been released by the sheriff as of Wednesday. Nor was the extent of his injuries made known.

The woman who fell last week from the cliff at Thacher did not sustain life-threatening injuries. She, too, was lifted to the roadway in a Stokes basket.

Southern  Albany County — its unique geology, dramatic escarpment and many  limestone caves — offers great recreational opportunities.  It’s also an excellent  place for practitioners of  high-angle heavy-rope rescue to hone their skills. And to put them to life-saving use.