Two climbers fall to their death at Yosemite
June 3, 2018
Officials at California's Yosemite National Park confirmed Saturday that two climbers had fallen to their death while scaling the El Capitan monolith.
They fell while climbing the Freeblast Route at around 8:15 a.m. local time (1515 UTC), the National Park Service said in a statement.
Yosemite park rangers and search and rescue personnel responded at the scene, but the climbers didn't survive the fall.
According to the AP news agency, the two climbers were identified as 46-year-old Jason Wells of Boulder, Colorado, and 42-year-old Tim Klien of Palmdale, California.
Park officials said that an investigation into the incident was ongoing and declined to provide further information.
Second fatal incident in a week
Saturday's accident marks the second fatal incident to take place in Yosemite in a little over a week, after a hiker died while attempting to climb the cliffs of Half Dome in rainy conditions.
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Yosemite National Park, known for its dramatic granite cliffs and waterfalls, attracts some 4 million visitors per year. El Capitan, which extends around 3,000 feet (900 meters), is known as a popular place of pilgrimage for hikers, as well as death-defying free climbers and base jumpers.
dm/cmk (AP, dpa)