Killer rockfall hits Yosemite

A CHUnk of rock the size of a small block of flats has sheared off a mountain in America’s Yosemite national Park, killing one person.

The granite rockfall came off the El Capitan peak at the height of the climbing season.

At least 30 climbers were on the sheer face of the mountain at the time, but it was not clear if the victim was one of them, or another visitor to the hugely popular national park. Another person was injured.

‘I saw a piece of white granite the size of an apartment building – at least 100ft by 100ft – come peeling off the wall with no warning,’ said Canadian climber Peter Zabrok, 57, who was above the rockfall.

El Capitan is one of the world’s largest granite monoliths, towering 4,000ft (1,219 metres) above Yosemite Valley. Mountaineers from around the world travel to the park in the Sierra nevada mountains of California to scale El Capitan. In 2013, a rock dislodged and severed the rope of American climber Mason Robison, 38, who fell 230ft to his death.

Yosemite covers 1,200 square miles of unspoilt forests, lakes and mountains and has more than 4million visitors a year, many of them Britons touring California.