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Former Cowboys tight end Gavin Escobar, 31, dies in rock climbing accident: He and a female friend, 33, are found by rescue crews near famed Tahquitz Rock in South California

Ex-Cowboys tight end Gavin Escobar died Wednesday in a fatal rock climbing accident as he tried to scale a mountainside near Idyllwild, California.

Escobar was climbing with another person, identified as 33-year-old Chelsea Walsh.

And the pair was fatally injured near the Tahquitz Peak Fire Lookout, within the San Bernardino National Forest, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The ex-NFL athlete was just 31 years old.

Officials did not immediately say whether or not rainfall earlier in the day played a factor in the deaths.

Gavin Escobar appeared in 62 games for the Cowboys during four seasons in Dallas

The victims were fatally injured at about 12:20pm, according to officials, and were reached by firefighters by 1:20pm, after two witnesses called 911.