The Holyhead lifeboat in Gogarth Bay during the search. Photo: RNLI/Ray Steadman

An inquest has been opened and adjourned on two climbers whose bodies were recovered from the sea at Gogarth Bay, Anglesey.

Jack Hutton-Potts, 23, and Vaughan Holme, 48, were climbing on sea cliffs near North Stack on Saturday but failed to meet friends and the alarm was raised at 10.15pm.

After a search involving Coastguard rescue teams, a Sea King search and rescue helicopter from nearby RAF Valley and two lifeboats, their bodies were found in the sea about 7.15am the following day.

Two rucksacks were found by the Coastguard and one of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution boats found the bodies, which were believed to be still roped together.

Mr Holme was a teacher and housemaster at Christ’s Hospital, a private school near Horsham in West Sussex and Mr Hutton-Potts, of Petersfield, Hampshire, was a former student who attended the institution between 2001 and 2008.

Mr Holme held the Mountain Training Single Pitch Award and Mountain Leader Award.

Mr Hutton-Potts was a keen climber whose ambition to climb El Capitan in Yosemite was thwarted by a climbing accident in Scotland and the death of his companion’s elder brother Rob Gauntlett in the Alps.

Mr Hutton-Potts was a biomedical science student at the University of Sussex and also worked at the Boulder Brighton climbing centre and had worked at Cotswold Outdoor.

Christ’s Hospital headmaster John Franklin said: “CH is a very close-knit community and the tragic loss of a popular teacher and a young Old Blue [former pupil], who were both experienced climbers, has shocked and saddened staff, pupils and the Old Blue community.

“A chapel service has been held for the school and we are doing all that we can to support those affected by their deaths.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and in particular, Mr Holme’s wife and his two children in this difficult time.”

Mr Holme’s body and that of his climbing companion were found on Father’s Day.

Christ’s Hospital offers independent education on a means-tested basis, with charitable donations contributing to the fees of many pupils, some of whom pay nothing. Early Lake District mountaineer and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an alumnus of the school.

North West Wales Coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones adjourned an inquest at Caernarfon until a later date.