Yosemite National Park, Calif. ? Rangers completed a dramatic rescue Thursday of two climbers from a snowy mountain and removed the ice-encrusted bodies of two other hikers who died on the peak in an unexpected early blizzard in the Sierras.

The deaths occurred on El Capitan, a forbidding 3,200-foot granite mountain at Yosemite National Park, following a fierce blizzard that stranded nearly two dozen hikers and climbers across Northern California this week. Other than the two deaths, everyone was found or rescued.

A rescue worker assists in the rescue Thursday of a hiker who survived being stranded on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif.

The two deaths created a gruesome sight for a helicopter crew that managed to fly close enough Wednesday to spot the bodies, which were blue and dripping with icicles as they dangled from their ropes about two-thirds the way up the precipice.

To retrieve the corpses, rangers rappelled down El Capitan, put the bodies into yellow mountaineering bags, and carried the them on their backs hundreds of feet to the summit. Another ranger team, using ropes secured to thick pine trees on the mountaintop, rappelled down to rescue the surviving climbers, who were airlifted off the mountain.

“They’re cold, and they’re tired but they’re in fine condition,” said Jen Nersesian, a park spokeswoman.

The two victims, an unidentified Japanese man and woman, had been ill-prepared for the weather, a ranger said.

The blizzard blew in early Sunday and continued through Wednesday, creating deadly white-out conditions and 50 mph gusts as it dumped several feet of snow across the Sierra Nevada.