PINEDALE (AP) -- A Colorado man died after he and a companion rock climber were struck twice by lightning on a 12,000-foot high mountain.

Sublette County Sheriff Hank Ruland identified the victim as Ryan Sayers, 20, of Colorado Springs, Colo.

His companion, Katrin Birmann, 24, of Munich, Germany, survived the strikes on Monday and received only minor burns.

The two were using ropes to climb a cliff on Steeple Peak in the Wind River Range in west-central Wyoming when they were hit by the first lightning strike about 1,500 feet from the peak at about 3 p.m., Ruland said.

The two decided to remove their equipment and sit out the storm because it would be too dangerous to try to descend in a storm.

"Up there if your hooked on with ropes, you have to hunker down," Ruland said.

But about an hour later another lightning strike hit them.

When Birmann recovered from the shock, she saw that Sayers had tumbled down the mountain face about 300 feet to a ravine, Ruland said.

She rappelled down to him and found that he was dead.

Birmann spent that night alone at a camp at the base of the mountain and then hiked out at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, meeting two hikers on a trail who had a cell phone. They called for help around 10 a.m.

A rescue team recovered Sayers' body later Tuesday. Ruland said it was not immediately known whether he died from the lightning strike or the fall.

Birmann was checked by medical personnel and released, Ruland said.

"She had some burn marks from lightning on her legs, but otherwise she was OK," he said.

Steeple Peak is in the Bridger-Teton National Forest about 40 miles southeast of Pinedale, which is 100 miles north of Rock Springs.