LOS ANGELES, Oct 21 (AFP) - Two Japanese mountain climbers died when they were caught in a sudden blizzard while scaling a peak in the United States' famed Yosemite National Park, officials said Thursday.
The bodies of the two, a man and a woman who have not yet been identified, were Wednesday spotted dangling lifelessly a few hundred feet (meters) below the top of the world's biggest granite monolith.
The climbers had been scaling the 2,250-meter (7,500-foot) El Capitan rockface for six days when an early snow storm caught them unawares and left them suddenly exposed to freezing temperatures.
The search for the pair began on Tuesday, but heavy snow and rain prevented helicopters from flying until Wednesday, said Jen Nersesnian, a spokeswoman for the Yosemite National Park in northern California.
"It was raining and snowing really hard and continued to do so for a couple of days, which made the rescue effort difficult," she told AFP.
"Rescuers then saw the couple and established that they were deceased but were unable to reach them until today (Thursday) because of bad conditions.
"We have just managed to get them to the top of the peak and have now recovered their bodies," she said.
Another 14 climbers, who were also stuck up on the peak but who were apparently better equipped than the Japanese pair, survived their two-day ordeal and were rescued by helicopter on Thursday, park official said.
The outdoor fans were picked up one by one off the treacherous rockface and flown to safety.
10/22/2004 01:04 GMT - AFP