One person died and another was injured when a massive rock slide off El Capitan, a popular Yosemite National Park climbing route, plummeted to the ground. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 11 on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017.
The search for more victims in a rock fall that killed a man and injured a woman ended Thursday morning at Yosemite National Park.
Officials at the park searched into Thursday morning for more victims in the rubble, but did not find anyone hours after a giant chunk of white granite broke loose from the face of famed El Capitan. The victims were identified Thursday as a couple visiting the park from Great Britain.
The National Park Service is working with the Consulate to inform family members.
It wasn't clear whether the two victims were climbers, but officials said the mountain was full of climbers at the height of the season for people looking to scale El Capitan. At least 30 climbers were on the vertical wall of the 7,569-foot El Capitan when the huge rock hunk fell Wednesday afternoon.
The rock fall was one of at least seven that occurred over four hours Wednesday, according to authorities. An estimated 16,000 cubic feet, about 1,300 tons, of rock tumbled off El Capitan during the afternoon.
The park records about 80 rockfalls per year. Many more go unreported.
Longtime Yosemite climber Peter Zabrok said he's never seen anything like the chunk of rock that broke off. Zabrok said it was as big as an apartment building.
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Yosemite National Park ranger and spokesman Scott Gediman says the rock appeared to fall from the popular "Waterfall Route" on the East Buttress of El Capitan.
All areas in California's Yosemite Valley are open a day after the major rock fall.
