Thursday, October 21, 2004 Posted: 0308 GMT (1108 HKT)
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, California (CNN) -- Two Japanese mountain climbers were discovered dead Wednesday in Yosemite National Park, a few hundred feet from the peak of the world's largest granite monolith, officials said.
The climbers, a man and a woman, had been climbing the 7,500-foot El Capitan for six days.
Their bodies were spotted by search and rescue teams a day after severe snowstorms prevented them from flying over the site, U.S. Park Ranger spokesman Scott Gediman said.
They were dangling from a 3,200-foot sheer climbing face.
El Capitan is among the world's best-known rock climbing spots.
Heavy snow and winds initially made a helicopter search impossible, so a rescue team began an 11-mile hike in driving snow and extreme wind, The Associated Press reported.
A break in the weather Wednesday allowed a helicopter to fly close to the party and rescuers determined that the two climbers were dead, park rangers told AP.
The Sierra Nevada range has been hit this week with an unusually early blizzard, and the heavy snow and high wind has hampered efforts to rescue at least 10 stranded hikers elsewhere in the rugged mountains.
The blizzard raged at higher elevations through much of Wednesday, frustrating rescuers who labored against 4-foot-deep snow and 50 mph winds to reach the areas where the hikers were thought to be, at elevations from 8,000 to close to 10,000 feet.
"It's miserable," said Erica Stuart, spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff's Department, told AP.
The stranded hikers included two groups of experienced backpackers along with a couple from San Luis Obispo County who apparently set out for a day hike.
Rescue workers believe the hikers can survive if they find shelter and wait for the storm to pass. Storm clouds were expected to clear Thursday night, when temperatures were expected to plunge to zero through much of the central Sierra.
"It certainly is a bona fide blizzard condition," said Mark Burger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, AP reported.
Seattle Times
Two El Capitan climbers killed in blizzard
Two Japanese climbers were found dead yesterday in Yosemite National Park, dangling from a 3,200-foot cliff amid an early blizzard that caught hikers throughout the Sierra Nevada off-guard.
The climbers on El Capitan were spotted Tuesday by rangers but could not be reached. They were among seven people on El Capitan when the storm hit Tuesday. A solo climber was rescued yesterday, while rangers reached a man and a woman and were going to remain with them on the face overnight, park ranger Deb Schweizer said. The other climbers only asked for extra supplies.