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French mountain gendarmes say they will narrow down the search for missing British hiker Esther Dingley after finding no trace of her in the Pyrenees.
As Dingley’s partner, Dan Colegate, continued to retrace their steps, rescue teams warned that forecasts of rain and snow in the next 36 hours could force them to terminate the search operation.
“We have looked everywhere and our colleagues in Spain have been doing the same,” Pierre Gaillard, the deputy commander of the high mountain gendarmerie platoon, told The Guardian.
“Today, we sent a helicopter over the high ranges, but this is an area that we have already searched. It’s hard to find someone up there because part of the area is covered in snow. The Spanish are doing the same on their side.
“Today is good weather and it is not possible that it was lost because it was trapped by bad weather, because the only time it was bad was the night from Thursday to Friday when there was snow and ice, but we were already looking for her by then.”
Dingley, 37, of Durham, who has been traveling with Colegate through Europe in a motorhome for the past six years, had gone on a solo trip, leaving the vehicle in Spain, where he began walking on November 21. He was scheduled to return to Gascony in France to meet with Coleman on Wednesday, but was unable to establish contact. Alarmed that he could not locate her, he reported that Dingley had disappeared.
Dingley was on the Chemin de l’Impératrice (Empress Trail) hiking trail through Port de Venasque before heading to Porte de la Glère in the Luchon Valley, along mountain corridors at altitudes up to 2,738 meters (8,990 feet) on the Franco-Spanish route. border.
Gaillard said gendarmes had not been able to determine where Dingley had disappeared. His last contact with Colegate was through a WhatsApp call on Sunday, November 22, when he indicated that he was at Pic de Sauvegarde.
“After that, he put his phone in airplane mode to save battery and there has been no data usage or GPS tracking since then. In theory, his itinerary meant that he should have done the loop and crossed into France before returning, but we can’t say for sure. We have no indication of whether he crossed the border or not, ”Gaillard said.
Since then, Spanish and French mountain rescue teams using helicopters have repeatedly swept the area on both sides of the border.
“If he stayed on the roads, he shouldn’t have had a problem, but sometimes with the snow and ice at altitude it’s hard to follow the roads,” Gaillard said, adding that Dingley was wearing dark clothing and carrying a gray backpack, that added to the difficulties to find it. He said there were no signs from his yellow tent to suggest that he had been camping.
He said Colegate, also from Durham, was also searching the mountain and had traveled the Dingley route, but was not with the rescue teams.
“He prefers to walk alone,” said the gendarme.
Gaillard said investigators had not ruled out any theories, including the fact that he could have met another person and died under suspicious circumstances.
“We are not only mountain rescuers, we also investigate, so we keep all lines of investigation open.” He said the chances of finding her now were “extremely slim.”
He added: “We will send a smaller team to search tomorrow, but after that, bad weather is forecast, including heavy snow.”
On Saturday, Colegate wrote on the couple’s Facebook page: “I’m broke. Shattered to report that my beloved Esther, the person who taught me to feel, has disappeared. Search and rescue teams have so far found no trace of her. “
On its Facebook page, the Peleton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne issued an investigation alert and an appeal to witnesses that reportedly sparked some negative responses, about lockdown rules in France that prohibit hiking.
The appeal insists: “This message aims to save a human life. Even if we understand the emotions generated by this behavior during a blackout period, please do not comment on this topic. We are facing an emergency here. “
“I have not been following social networks, but I understand that there were people who complained about this, but the confinement rules are different in Spain, where she left, so maybe she did not know,” said Gaillard.
