Valley rangers received a report of two climbers stranded at the top of the sixteenth pitch of the "Iron Hawk" route on El Capitan at 2:30 on the afternoon of Friday, March 29th. The climbers reported via family band radio that they were uninjured, but that they had dropped both of their hammers and were unable to continue. While planning was underway for the wall rescue, a hiker having a diabetic emergency was reported on the Vernal Falls trail. The hiker was carried out without incident, but this rescue delayed the retrieval of the stranded climbers on El Capitan until the next day. On March 30th, a team of 13 rescuers was flown to the top of El Capitan by helicopter. Team members lowered ranger Jeff Webb 800 feet to the climbers. Webb secured them to the rescue lines and they were hauled to the top. The ropes were then lowered back down to Webb, who was hauled up. Everyone was flown off and the mission was completed without incident by late afternoon. [Steve Yu, IC/PR, YOSE, 4/1]
