Esther Dingley disappearance in the Pyrenees

Tweek_1984

Tweek_1984

Tweek_1984

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Couldn't find any chatter about this on the forum. Story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-57818035

Human remains found today by a hill runner and confirmed by the French and Spanish Police, believed to be Esther. DNA testing will take several days to several weeks.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ey-says-mountain-pass-bones-capabilities.html

Her boyfriend is still sceptical it was an accident.

Thoughts?

Personally I think she's stumbled, fallen and either broken bones or simply been knocked out. Maybe ran out of water and died due to exposure.

What I also find interesting is the burgeoning pursuit of 'van life' which has suddenly become popular and seems to cause more suicides and misadventure deaths than you'd dare believe.
 
Been a few deaths from misadventure with solo attempts at outdoor stuff like this lately - kind of sad to see with the amount of passion/enjoyment evident. i.e. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-57609174 made me quite sad to see that.

Actually kind of surprised with some of them as they seem fairly experienced but died in while not great not really that atrocious conditions - I've survived worse situations without being anything like close to dying. Maybe they got overconfident.
 
It was a late September when i walked across from France to Spain but people were dropping like flies (seen mountain rescue parked up afew times)and ordering taxis back (the phone signal is actually very very good moviestar roaming network iirc) it was blazing hot but then there would be an icy blast ,i can imagine in winter it would be pretty treacherous ,theres about 20 bears up there also apparently ,plus i was doing the very popular Camino ist leg st jean pied de port to Roncesvalles well marked ,total elevation ascended 1300 mtrs lots of other walkers her route may have been very different
 
I watch quite a few youtube channels with stuff like walking the Cape Wrath trail in Scotland, something I'll never do but would have loved to.
Some activities can be right on the edge safety wise, and solo hiking in mountains is right up there, so in this sad case I would suspect an accident more than foul play.
As for van life, it's exploded over the last few years, some of it lifestyle orientated, but a lot of it financial with the cost of housing. Some of them have just ended up in Europe buying somewhere cheap.
 
Most likely tripped and fell unconscious, leading to death by exposure. If Ou fall and are injured and conscious then you have a good survival chance when carrying the right gear. Spunds like she had a tent, and was planning to sleep in a winter room of s mountain hut which would have required a sleeping bags and lots of clothing.

Being an easy path is somewhat of an irrelevance. On difficult paths and technical terrain you go slower and pay a lot of attention. On easy terrain you can end up going ignoring the trip hazard.


Also seems odd that the bones were found in the exact area she went missing despite presumably people searching there.
 
Uther said:
I watch quite a few youtube channels with stuff like walking the Cape Wrath trail in Scotland, something I'll never do but would have loved to.
Some activities can be right on the edge safety wise, and solo hiking in mountains is right up there, so in this sad case I would suspect an accident more than foul play.
As for van life, it's exploded over the last few years, some of it lifestyle orientated, but a lot of it financial with the cost of housing. Some of them have just ended up in Europe buying somewhere cheap.
Click to expand...


Solo Hiking in the mountains is not that dangerous. I donit a lot, mostly solo running. Some things much more dangerous would be mountain biking, road biking etc. where you have a high chance of falling or hit by a car, and when the fall/crash could be easily fatal. Hiking snd running, unless on severe terrain, wont lead to much except a few bruises.

it is terrain dependent to some degree, at the same time in no-fall terrain having company might not make much difference. I ve been solo running in the Dolomites the last days and several times got to points where the risk level got too high -high exposure on loose scree - so i turned back. But the sketchy slopes were descended at 30mins/mile conoared tl 8-12on the moderate trails
 
Malevolence said:
The way the story is written it sounds as if only remains were found, surely there would be some remnant of her gear with the remains.
Click to expand...
wondering the same, and the gera should have ID. Possible she left it behind in an attempt to crawl for help after an accident, but that is a pretty rookie mistake (unless you have no additional gear, or the injury is critical). If she had a tent then hunkering down would be best.
 
Some people get a kick out of doing potentially dangerous things. If something like this never happened the novelty for the aforesaid people wouldn't be there. IMO it's very foolhardy for a woman to do these solo treks, but there you go.
 
D.P. said:
Solo Hiking in the mountains is not that dangerous. s
Click to expand...

Doing anything solo in remote places is relatively dangerous....many many more times more dangerous than being with someone. The consequences of something going wrong are so much higher without backup.

All relative though, I'd still do it :) I solo'd some grade 3 scrambles last week and the consequences of a mistake there would have been pretty serious.
 
Malevolence said:
The way the story is written it sounds as if only remains were found, surely there would be some remnant of her gear with the remains.
Click to expand...

Its really sad to hear, they sounded like they were having a great time.

Both experienced hikers well kitted out and from what I've read the route had pretty decent mobile signal for the entire length.
I think it was in ne repot that she had call her partner the night before she went missing.
From what Iv read, search and rescue and a number of other including standard and drone searches were carried out repeatedly

I also recall reading that he's walked hundreds if not thousands of Km both the route she was walking and any variance of it as well as off the beaten tracks the entire route also.
For what sounds to be a single bone found and nothing else on a regular walking route after all that really does sound off to me.

I hope it's really not the case but a bone dumped and a kidnap may be possible, as could a shallow grave and animals digging.
 
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