A pair of experienced rock climbers fell to their deaths Saturday morning while scaling a massive rock formation at Yosemite National Park in northern California, the National Park Service announced. Close friends Tim Klein, 42, and Jason Wells, 46, were climbing the Freeblast route on El Capitan (a large rock formation) around 8 a.m. when tragedy struck. A scream was heard as Klein and Wells, tethered together, fell 1,000 feet to the ground, according to Climbing.com. “They are both no longer with us,” Klein’s wife, JJ, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday, alongside a photo of the couple on their wedding day. “I know this is incredibly shocking and sad to so many of you who knew them, and it is still very surreal to the boys and I and our entire family and circle of friends. Our only comfort is Jesus right now.” JJ said that Klein and Wells fell from the rock after a haul bag from climbers above fell onto the pair. Park rangers received several 911 calls after the incident and rescue teams found the men dead at the scene, according to the NPS. As elite climbers, the men would often climb the 3,000-foot rock formation on weekends, a friend of the pair, Wayne Willoughby, told Climbing.com. Klein, of Palmdale, California, and Wells, of Boulder, Colorado, began climbing together during college in San Diego, he added. Tim Klein (left) and Jason Wells In the wake of their deaths, family and friends have shared photos and memories of the men on Facebook. “I’ve rock climbed more pitches with Jason than any other human being. His energy, laughter, and genuine passion for climbing were absolutely infectious,” Stefan Griebel wrote in a post on Saturday. “And Tim … After my last trip up El Cap with Tim, I later confided in Jason that Tim was the most Jesus-like man I’ve ever known. So true, and also such a great topic for both jokes, laughter and deeper conversations. Both of them, humble and selfless. And yet, my hurt and sadness seems insignificant to that of what their wives and families must be feeling. A horrible loss.” Story continues Another friend, Greg Murphy, shared a Facebook photo of the men roped together while climbing a rope. He wrote simply: “Damn, I’m going to miss these guys blowing past me on El Cap. Much love.” Ken Yager, president of the Yosemite Climbing Association, described El Capitan to the New York Times as a prime target for “serious climbers.” “People from all over the world come to climb it,” he said. Although few details have been released about the cause of the fall, Yager described the men as “very experienced” climbers. “Something weird happened. There’s no doubt in my mind,” he added.<doc-sep>The incident baffled Robinson, who is the executive director of the Access Fund, an organization that works to protect climbing access in the United States. The section of the Freeblast Route where the duo fell was a relatively easy part of the ascent, Robinson said. But it’s known for its chunks of rocks that can occasionally become loose. Additionally, the technique the pair were employing, a type of speed climbing called “simul-climbing,” is an advanced one that becomes “inherently riskier” when a third person is added, Robinson said.<doc-sep>
And in 2015, Tyler Gordon fell to his death while climbing the Nose. Mr. Griebel said Mr. Klein had climbed El Capitan — known as El Cap among climbers — more than 100 times. Mr. Wells had also climbed it many times, he said. “It’s safe to say they knew exactly what they were doing,” he said. Brady Robinson, the executive director of the Access Fund, an organization that seeks to protect climbing areas in the United States, said Mr. Wells was one of his best friends, and they often climbed together on routes in Boulder. El Capitan is “much bigger than anything around here, which is why he liked it,” Mr. Robinson said. “What he used to do was he would fly out on a Friday, climb El Cap twice — once on Saturday and once on Sunday.” “That is almost unheard-of,” he added. Mr. Wells was “just one of these undercover world-class athletes that almost nobody knew about.” Mr. Robinson said Mr. Wells and Mr. Klein were using a technique called simul-climbing in which both climbers are attached by a rope and move at the same time to go at a faster pace. They were doing this with a third person, a variation on an already rare technique that is “inherently riskier” than regular climbing, Mr. Robinson said. The third person, who was not identified by the National Park Service, was on a separate rope and anchor, and not securely attached to the same system being used by Mr. Wells or Mr. Klein, according to Mr. Robinson, and was unharmed.