[Chico]

Story at foxnews.com 30 people were on the rock at the time.

[Ringangleclaw]

Pass The Piton Pete, a climber on the nearby "Waterfall" route who witnessed what he calls a 100'X100'X100' block peel away, feels there may be two or three more victims completely buried. Post number 50 on this thread: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/3014875/Massive-rockfall-Waterfall-route

[thunderhead]

Yikes. Those big cliffs drop some serious firepower from time to time. Its rare... but those cliffs are lined with debris talus slopes for a reason. One of the spires across the valley almost tagged me and my team one time with a much smaller... but still freaking scary... sized rock. RIP

[thunderhead]

Second and much larger drop hit a few hours ago. Pics of this one look absolutely massive. Hopefully everyone cleared out of the drop zone, being warned off after yesterday, but the dust cloud extends well out into the valley... https://twitter.com/MissConnieTran/status/913531510916997120

[thunderhead]

Hopefully the big chunks and core of the air blast, if any, stayed close to the cliff.

[zephyr]

Some photos here in this article in The Oregonian. The second one is a shot from the top of Half-Dome and you can see the dust cloud in the distance. Rather dramatic view. From the article: "Longtime climbers of Yosemite National Park's iconic El Capitan said Thursday they've never seen a rock fall like the one "the size of an apartment building" that plunged down the vertical face of the stunning rock formation, killing a British climber and seriously injuring his British climbing partner. "I've seen smaller avalanches and smaller falls before where you would just see a tiny dust cloud, this was covering a good portion of the rock in front of us," said John DeGrazio of YExplore Yosemite Adventures, who has led climbers scaling El Capitan for 12 years. The victims were hiking at the bottom of El Capitan in preparation to scale it when the granite chunk fell Wednesday afternoon, said park ranger and spokesman Scott Gediman. It was about 130 feet tall and 65 feet wide and appeared to fall from the popular "Waterfall Route" on the East Buttress of El Capitan, Gediman said. The victims were not identified because officials were notifying their relatives. DeGrazio said he had just guided a group to the top of El Capitan the rock crashed to the ground, sending a large cloud of rock dust into the air. At least 30 climbers were on the wall of the 7,569-foot monolith when the huge hunk of rock fell." ~z

[Ringangleclaw]

Some nice photographs and comments by John Middendorf showing the size of the second rockfall. The second slab could be on the order of 500' high and two hundred feet across, with a unknown depth, but 30 to 60 feet could be realistic. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Bigwallsforum

[AlpineRose]

According to the LA Times and other sources, Wednesday's event was a series of seven rockfalls occurring in a four hour timespan.

[Ringangleclaw]

[flatsqwerl]

I imagine climbers will be chomping at the bit now to explore the new terrain opened up by the rockfall.

[Ringangleclaw]

[Chico]

BBC.com

[trestle]

Saw a clip last night on the news where drivers on the highway below had a boulder from the debris crash through their sunroof. Quite the event and my condolences to the poor widow from Wales, may the departed rest in peace.

[Bernardo]

A large junk of Silver Peak fell off a number of years ago. We noticed the rocks on the snow below after we ascended from the Annette lake side. There were roots hanging off the edge and you could see the fresh rock face extended down quite a ways. Some risks just can't be avoided. Sounds like the Welsh man shielded his wife and died a hero to her. RIP.

[thunderhead]

Using a typical density of granite, that second fall dropped about 30,000 tons of rock... roughly the mass of a treaty battleship. Image that falling on your head! No thanks!