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Yosemite rangers recover bodies of 2 who fell from overlook

In this Sept. 27, 2018, file photo a wedding couple are seen being photographed at Taft Point in California’s Yosemite National Park. A Yosemite National Park official says two visitors have died in a fall from the popular overlook. Park rangers are trying to recover the bodies of a man and a woman Thursday, Oct.25, 2018. He didn’t say when the couple fell from Taft Point, which is at an elevation of 7,500 feet. Gediman says the deaths are being investigated and offered no other information. (Amanda Lee Myers / AP)
By Olga R. Rodriguez Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO – Yosemite National Park rangers have recovered the bodies of two people who fell 800 feet from a popular overlook after working to reach them for hours, an official said Friday.

Park spokeswoman Jamie Richards said rangers had to rappel down and climb the steep terrain in Taft Point as they worked to reach the bodies of a male and female. A California Highway Patrol helicopter also assisted them, she said.

Officials are investigating when the pair fell and from which spot at the overlook 3,000 feet above the famed Yosemite Valley floor, Richards said. A tourist spotted the victims Wednesday. They have not been identified.

Railings only exist at a small portion of Taft Point, which offers breathtaking views of the valley, Yosemite Falls and towering granite formation El Capitan. Visitors can walk to the edge of a vertigo-inducing granite ledge that does not have a railing and has become a popular spot for dramatic engagement and wedding photos.

More than 10 people have died at the park this year, six of them from falls and the others from natural causes, Gediman said. An 18-year-old Israeli man accidentally fell hundreds of feet to his death last month while hiking near the top of 600-foot-tall Nevada Fall.

In 2015, world-famous wingsuit flier Dean Potter and partner Graham Hunt died after jumping from Taft Point in an attempt to clear a V-shaped notch in a ridgeline. They were at flying in wingsuits but crashed.

The activity is the most extreme form of BASE jumping, which stands for jumping off buildings, antennas, spans (such as bridges) and Earth and is illegal in the park.