Severed thumb reattached after 80-foot fall at El Capitan

An Austrian climber at Yosemite National Park whose thumb was severed by a rope during a fall from El Capitan had the digit reattached after it dropped about 80 feet down the granite face and was recovered from a small ledge.

"The severed thumb miraculously fell approximately 80 feet and landed on a two foot by one foot ledge," park officials said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

The incident began Monday afternoon as two rock climbers, on their second day of traversing the famed monolith, were about 1,000 below the summit, officials said.