Officials identify 2 hikers who fell from Yosemite cliff

Park rangers said they received frantic calls early Saturday morning that two climbers had fallen from El Capitan, a 3,000 foot rock formation.

According to Jamie Richards, a park ranger at Yosemite, it's one of the parks most technical climbs. "Both climbers were in a party climbing together," said Richards. "They were climbing on the route known as 'freeblast.' I'm not sure exactly where they were on that route."

The climbers are identified as 46-year-old Jason Wells of Boulder, Colorado and 42-year-old Tim Klein from Palmdale, California.

After responding to the 911 calls, Richards said search and rescue workers spent most of the day searching for the fallen hikers.

"Park rangers that are specifically trained on search and rescue and recovery came out here," she said. "They worked on recovering both of these climbers' remains and making sure that they got to the appropriate location to our local coroner's office."

Klein was a teacher at Palmdale High School.

A former student of his described him as a life that gave so much to so many people.

"This is a tragic loss ,and we certainly hope to learn what happened," said Richards. "Our thoughts go out to the friends and families of both these individuals."