The Latest: Deadly rockfall at Yosemite was size of building
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on a fatal rock fall at Yosemite National Park (all times local):
8 p.m.
A climber who was above a deadly rockfall at Yosemite National Park says a hunk of granite "the size of an apartment building" fell off the mountainside.
Peter Zaybrok (ZAY'-brok) of Ontario, Canada, says he was on his sixth day of a climb up the popular El Capitan on Wednesday when he looked down and saw the rockfall.
El Capitan is one of the world's largest granite monoliths towering vertically 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) from the Yosemite Valley floor.
Authorities say one person was killed and one was injured, and they are searching for more possible victims.
Zaybrok said he would be dead if he'd been climbing at his usual leisurely pace.
The 57-year-old Zaybrock tells KFSN-TV (http://abc30.tv/2xLKAbe) that he doesn't know how anyone who was below the rockfall could have survived.
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5 p.m.
Officials at Yosemite National Park say one person was killed and another injured in a rock fall on the granite face of El Capitan.
Ranger Scott Gediman said rocks came crashing down Wednesday at the height of climbing season with at least 30 climbers on the wall.
El Capitan is one of the world's largest granite monoliths towering vertically 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) from the Yosemite Valley floor.
Gediman says the injured person was being taken to a hospital near the park. No identities were released.
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4:30 p.m.
Officials at Yosemite National Park in California say a chunk of rock broke off El Capitan along one of the world's most famously scaled routes at the height of climbing season.
Ranger Scott Gediman said Wednesday that witnesses made multiple calls reporting the rock fall around 2 p.m. PDT. He estimates 30 or more climbers were on the wall at the time, but he could not confirm injuries or the size of the rock fall.
El Capitan is one of the world's largest granite monoliths towering vertically 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) from the Yosemite Valley floor. Mountaineers worldwide travel to the park to scale the sheer face.
Gediman says the park's helicopter is helping assess the damage.
The rock fall happened along the Waterfall route on El Capitan's eastern buttress.