Found Deceased Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020

[RickshawFan]

My initial thought about asking for fruit, was maybe she hadn't eaten that morning and her sugar levels were low, rather than water. That can be disorientating if neglected, especially on a rigorous hike.

Snipped for focus.
She must have had food in her pack. She was scheduled to be overnighting. So, IMO the fruit thing is not about needing calories or a sugar boost.
The only other possibility, to my mind, is that the only food she had on her needed to be reconstituted, i.e. it required water. But it would be a sign of catastrophic inexperience if this was the case and she didn't leave the trail and head into town immediately. I doubt it.

 

[RickshawFan]

This is my thought also. It seems specific, why not ask for water or if they had any water treatment tablets if that was the issue??

Tablets don't instantly work. They can take 4 hours to set up. This is the biggest problem with tablets. You have to carry several hours of water while your new batch is setting up. That means you might be carrying 4 liters of water just to have 2 on hand. Filters are a much lighter water solution because there's no set up time.
Fruit would be immediate hydration.

 

[GinaSeikwa]

She had a working cell phone with good cell service. Even if she just found out that the refuge didn’t have running water ( and how she could not know this through a simple google search before heading out) she could have easily signalled this to Dan when she realized. “Ah geez just arrived at the refuge and guess what- no water! “
Unless she didn’t want to signal her error to anyone.
But then would she head out to find water in a lake with all of her gear? Or if she arrived at the refuge and just realized her error would she maybe take a load off and leave her tent and food etc. at the refuge knowing that she was coming back after she found a water source?
The fact no sign of her was at the Refuge, she didn’t sign in is concerning.
Personally IMO I am back on the sudden accident before reaching the refuge or the self harm train

 

[Gavlar1985]

Apologies if it’s been discussed already (tried looking!) but has anyone close to the case mentioned evidence either way of her staying in the refuge on the night of the 22nd? Dan’s latest comments imply she could have (‘she would have had signal after setting off the next day’), but I’ve seen or heard no evidence to back that up.

 

[patCee]

Snipped for focus.

I would venture to bet that most water accidents while hiking are performed by folks who are "too experienced to fall into a lake". Fact is, people do.
Second factoid: A huge number of hikers who go missing every year are categorized as "experienced" by loved ones.
Third factoid: Very experienced hikers have mishaps and go missing every year. This is, like, the fifth one I've followed this fall.
Fourth factoid: being experienced doesn't exempt you from falling into a lake

Of course it's too painful for DC to think this is what has happened to ED. The grandfather (experienced hiker) who gave her a lift felt a lake was most likely. Nevertheless DC seems to have narrowed down where she was to a very small area. Also we are told that one group of searchers do not believe she is on the mountains. Very puzzling.

 

[Rhomal]

Apologies if it’s been discussed already (tried looking!) but has anyone close to the case mentioned evidence either way of her staying in the refuge on the night of the 22nd? Dan’s latest comments imply she could have (‘she would have had signal after setting off the next day’), but I’ve seen or heard no evidence to back that up.

Police said no evidence that she had been there

 

[Rhomal]

Of course it's too painful for DC to think this is what has happened to ED. The grandfather (experienced hiker) who gave her a lift felt a lake was most likely. Nevertheless DC seems to have narrowed down where she was to a very small area. Also we are told that one group of searchers do not believe she is on the mountains. Very puzzling.

If she had low blood sugars (hence asking for fruit?) or felt unwell it could have caused her to fall in a lake perhaps.

 

[Satchie]

Does anyone have a theory about the asking for fruit? IMO it still smacks of making her presence memorable to the skier (not sure for what reason exactly). If it was on the basis she had found out there was no running water- why not ask for water? If it was because she had run out of fresh food, does that not seem odd when we know this was day one of a three day hike. I know someone was hunting to find out for definite if she actually asked for fruit, or if it was just a badly reported story that has grown legs. Do we have an answer on that yet?

IMO, sometimes you'd just like to stop and have an apple but you didn't bring any because fruit is too heavy on a multiday trek. It's nice to stop and eat it for a little break, but it's not essential. People coming down from a dayhike may have brought an extra orange or something they didn't actually need. Maybe when she was on dayhikes she gave fruit to backpackers, who knows.

IMO it's not signficant. IMO if she had forgotten water or her filter, she would have asked the hikers about that, or would have turned around and gone back before climbing the peak.

ETA: also, IMO she was happy, and happy people like to connect in a friendly way to strangers.

 

[Satchie]

one group of searchers do not believe she is on the mountains. Very puzzling.

RSBM

I can't imagine there are any experienced search and rescue members who are genuinely convinced she is not there. They can know for sure she is not inside the refuge or beside the trail or on the peak. But from the photos, you can't know for sure she is not in that section of the Pyrenees: that she didn't get lost and hypothermic and wander into a grove of trees, or go too near an edge and fall into an inaccessible place and, being dressed in black, to look exactly like the dark shadows cast at this time of year, or go off trail to get water, and leave her grey backpack against the shadowy side of a grey rock, or to be behind a boulder that searchers didn't walk fully around? I think experienced SAR leaders would never rule out those possibilities.

But when continual searching is no longer productive, it's a good idea to ensure there is no evidence of other possibilities.

JMO

 

[Satchie]

Apologies if it’s been discussed already (tried looking!) but has anyone close to the case mentioned evidence either way of her staying in the refuge on the night of the 22nd? Dan’s latest comments imply she could have (‘she would have had signal after setting off the next day’), but I’ve seen or heard no evidence to back that up.

There is no evidence on way or another. Although there is a 'guest book', as a solo female she may not have felt comfortable registering in those. I confess to not registering in many guestbooks, anywhere.

IMO, she had all her own gear, she would have unpacked, used it, packed up and left no signs behind. And, if it didn't have cell access, it is not suspicious that her phone didn't ping any towers.

Note: police have likely been able to confirm she was on the peak of Sauvegard on the 22nd at 4pm, because of the geospatial data from the celltower.

 

[Blondiexoxo]

Family of missing hiker who vanished in the Pyrenees three weeks ago issue desperate plea | Daily Mail Online

Latest article, including statements from Dan clearing up some speculation. Sorry if it’s already posted.

Shocked to see how low down the story is on DM though, no where near the top of the headlines.

 

[stmarysmead]

According to the family press release, she was an hour from the Refuge but only 90 minutes from a road in France or Spain. But how far would either of those roads be from shelter, as it was already late in the afternoon? And although there was no cell service on the path to the Refuge, would there have been cell service if she instead headed to either of thee roads?

Dan does indicate that she kept in very frequent contact with him and her Mother. They must have been expecting some sort of contact by nightfall of the first FULL day she was missing.

Had she made a reservation at the Refuge or is that not often done when they are unmanned?

Interesting that Dan mentions that the paths near the lakes are very wide.

 

[patCee]

Snipped for focus.

I would venture to bet that most water accidents while hiking are performed by folks who are "too experienced to fall into a lake". Fact is, people do.
Second factoid: A huge number of hikers who go missing every year are categorized as "experienced" by loved ones.
Third factoid: Very experienced hikers have mishaps and go missing every year. This is, like, the fifth one I've followed this fall.
Fourth factoid: being experienced doesn't exempt you from falling into a lake

Thats very true and the local mayor has reported there are 7/8 fatalities in the area every year. It's likely some of those will be water accidents.

 

[ZaZara]

LBT Global full press release on behalf of Esther’s family:

L B Trust Global

Very happy to read that the Mystery Hiker came forward and spoke to the police. (I thought as much.)

Here's to hoping that many witnesses who saw and / or spoke with Esther talk to LE first.

If the area between the Salvaguardia and the Refuge has such wide and easy paths as Dan describes, then perhaps Esther did reach that area safe and sound, but slept in her tent on the night from Sunday to Monday.
And did not disappear until the next day, Monday 23 November.

Would that be the day of her returning to the van in Benasque?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Would that be the day of her returning to the van in Benasque?

I don’t think so. I think she’d only covered about a quarter or third of the loop

EDIT to clarify, I mean at the point of being at Refuge de Venasque, if she even got that far.

 

[Rhomal]

If you look at images of the lakes and Pic de Sauvegarde it’s certainly difficult to see how they would have failed to find her if she was there. Wide open landscape and the lakes have soft gentle edges. Even shows the refuge place which is right by a little lake.

 

[Officer Dibble]

Thats very true and the local mayor has reported there are 7/8 fatalities in the area every year. It's likely some of those will be water accidents.

Have we had links to local news about the individual fatalities up there? Can use google chrome to auto translate.

 

[Rhomal]

Have we had links to local news about the individual fatalities up there? Can use google chrome to auto translate.

There is info of some fatalities due to avalanches and skiers skiing off-piste.

 

[sundaaaay]

Only joining this thread now so I haven’t had a chance to read the comments! As someone who has hiked similar landscapes in the alps, I’m intrigued by this case. Contrary to the photos you may see, these trails are often well marked out and maintained by rangers. The refugios are dotted along routes and everyone tends to be heading to these for sleep or food. You see people on your route and you tend to remember them because they are so few. People can be friendly and they do stop and talk sometimes. I see the most likely scenario as she deviated from the route and hurt herself, which would explain why no other hikers seen her. She may have needed to go to the toilet, find some fresh water (you can drink the water from streams) which is plentiful or have attempted to take a shortcut.

 

[jenspired]

Sorry if this has already been noted, just a thought that the request for fruit may be purely down to her being used to juice as part of her hiking habit. Her own Instagram from 2016 (before they started the joint account) mentions this a lot: Login • Instagram