Federico, thanks for your map with the X marked on it. That path makes a lot of sense. Regarding this picture here, is your "X path" where I've marked B on the attached picture, rather than A? I can't see any path up A, but can see a very faint one at B (original picture also attached in order to see this faint path). Although I might be completely off the mark with both A & B here.
Found Deceased Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, Nov 2020 #7
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pineapple23
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As someone who once got paralysed with fear on scree on a HILL, that pic makes me go weak at the knees.
I wonder was she wearing those new shoes then? Perhaps not. I also wondered about the clothing she might be wearing. If she had different clothing on to the picture she sent Dan (assuming that picture was taken on the 22nd of course), that might indicate she died on the 23rd. Of course she may have been wearing the same clothing the entire time. It's so hard to piece this together without any info.
ZaZara
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If ever I made it as far as that top, I'd grab a rock and pray I'd hold on and they would have to send a helicopter to get me down again....
I still find it difficult to imagine how Esther who was walking 'a trail well within her capabilities' would have left that track for this unfriendly, scary landscape. I hope the pictures she took tell more of the story.
Yes that is odd, but then again I can't imagine DC thinking she would venture up on to the ridge, it looks way beyond her (and frankly most peoples) capabilities. And if you discount that and don't find her on the trail....you go elsewhere.
It was the skull, not the body, found at 2200m the remains were 30m below the Pic and the skull 100m below that....which still doesn't quite add up but nearly.
Grouse
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La Sportiva was mentioned in both the dossier and multiple MSM articles about "worn" shoes. Personally I think it's unlikely that she would have kept an older worn out pair and then used them on this stretch of the hike.
But yes without more information we don't know, I only brought it up again to allay further excursions down the unprepared/inadequate equipment road.
https://42cc80b7-be3b-41e3-a85b-18b...d/4addd9_d8c55b489c6f445b96d6324dd882f5a1.pdf
23 page dossier (link reposted). I just checked to see if she was carrying climbing shoes as they have smooth soles(no)
This sentence caught my eye
Esther IS NOT in the habit of walking ‘off path’ by choice, especially when a perfectly good path is available. In more than a decade of serious hiking together, Dan reports that they hardly ever leave marked paths, and only then for short distances on flat ground to correct minor route errors. If they miss a turning, they double back. There was no need for Esther to leave a marked trail as the paths are well maintained and easy to follow, not only on her planned route but in the wider area.
I'm still perplexed how, and why, she went to the Pic....or even to the ridge...
23 page dossier (link reposted). I just checked to see if she was carrying climbing shoes as they have smooth soles(no)
This sentence caught my eye
Esther IS NOT in the habit of walking ‘off path’ by choice, especially when a perfectly good path is available. In more than a decade of serious hiking together, Dan reports that they hardly ever leave marked paths, and only then for short distances on flat ground to correct minor route errors. If they miss a turning, they double back. There was no need for Esther to leave a marked trail as the paths are well maintained and easy to follow, not only on her planned route but in the wider area.
I'm still perplexed how, and why, she went to the Pic....or even to the ridge...
pineapple23
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I think this has been covered but I can only think of photo opportunity, or the misguided temptation to take on one last challenge or maybe she was scared/chased by an animal - though presumably they would know of bears in the area (I read they are tagged?). Which leaves another possible explanation which I would rather not think about.
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Very good point, thanks. She would also have to recharge her 2 torches from this powerbank too. The torch lasts about 3 hours in standard mode, it also has a proximity mode but it is pretty dim.
REVIEW: Petzl BINDI Headtorch
"The white LEDs have three power modes:
- Proximity: 5 lumen, 6m range and 50hr burn time
- Standard: 100 lumen, 23m, 3hrs
- Max: 200 lumen, 36m, 2hrs"
I'm no physicist but assume 5 charges from the powerbank would mean that the phone battery drains 5520mAh (27600 /5) and a torch/phone charge combined = 6200 mAh (5520 + 680). So it could do nearly 4.5 charges of one phone and one torch.
Does suggest she shouldn't have been low on phone power by the Port de Glere, unless she was doing a lot of night walking! If she was late and desperate to call, she may have climbed the Pic in low light levels to get a signal?
Is there a direct path from the Pic de Sauvegarde to the Port de la Glere? Could she have gone there directly after the call to Dan, it was getting dark, an animal was out, chased her, she ran up the mountain, hence no spikes on her shoes & full backpack with her? Doesn't explain the missing tent though, unless it was with all the other stuff and blew away over the months?
This was discussed a while back but it is a knife-edge ridge in parts and nobody has found or mentioned any such path, so it's been mostly discounted
Maybe trying to get a signal?
The rock looks so crumbly and fractured, I would be terrified.If ever I made it as far as that top, I'd grab a rock and pray I'd hold on and they would have to send a helicopter to get me down again....
I still find it difficult to imagine how Esther who was walking 'a trail well within her capabilities' would have left that track for this unfriendly, scary landscape. I hope the pictures she took tell more of the story.
pineapple23
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Good point.
I haven't been able to follow y'all's X & Y may (or may not) mark the spot on maps discussion, so don't know which if any of the photos linked in this post are where she is thought to have trekked.
FWIW. The first 2 represent a huge difference in degree of difficulty from the 3rd. I spent decades adventuring in the wilderness, including hiking & backpacking above the timberline, and very often alone (though have done very little rope climbing).
Ascending what's in photo 1 & 2 wouldn't constitute a straightforward, family-style hike, but imo, neither would it be exceptionally difficult. More like a challenge but not one risky or reckless.
The 3rd, the snow covered & summit: that's different. No way no how would it have been anything other than risky AND reckless for her to have tried to go that alone, in November, without equipment, her best crampons & a plan she had communicated ahead of time. Was it said by the search team this is where she had gone/tried to go?
Also. Just because her BF said she never did this she always did that when they were hiking together doesn't mean it's odd in the least if she approached things, including hiking, differently when she was alone.
Again, perhaps especially at the end of this 30 day solo journey when she might have been decided she wanted to keep adventuring, and was ready to go it alone.
Last thought, about her saying the cell reception wouldn't be good for those days. If for some reason her words can't be taken at face value- that ED knew better but said that anyway. The most straightforward possible reason would be she wanted to be entirely alone with her own self & thoughts for a few days, the last of her trip.
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These are actually all views of the same peak from different angles, and in different seasons.
The first two pictures are of the Spanish side of the Pic de la Glère, first from beyond the Ibon de Gorgutes lake, looking towards the Port, then from the path on the other side of the lake, taken from a point near the centre of the first picture. They were taken in August.
This picture from the flickr album (Puerto de la Glera (42)) is the same ridge, looking west to east, so the grassy slopes visible in the first two pictures are on the right of the frame, in Spain. France is on the left. This one (Puerto de la Glera (44)) is looking back down the path visible in the first two pictures, looking into Spain. All the pictures in that album were taken in late October.
The last picture is looking westwards from the summit proper, back along the summit ridge towards the Port with the flanks of the Pic de Sacroux for a backdrop. You can make out the blue waters of the thawing Ibon de Gorgutes on the left of the picture. The picture was taken in June, before the winter snows had fully melted.
Esther's body was found somewhere on the less accessible French side of this peak. It's been suggested that she may have climbed to a point on the ridge from the Spanish side, then fallen to her death.
That's very true, and the same thought had occurred to me.
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Not just incompetence, but IMO deliberate deception. No reason for the Sun to actually pay an employee to fly to Spain. Probably paid an expat in Spain to get a clip of him hiking, with his Spanish friend, and the whole rest of it invented by an editor in about 15 minutes before turning to the next story.
The purpose of tabloids is to make readers believe they know the real story, rather than actually knowing the real story.
For the same reason I'd be cautious of any news interptetation of where she was found, and where she fell from. I'm not convinced that info has been officially released, but dodgy media sources may well have jumped to conclusions about her being on top of the pic de la glere.
RSBM
Because it seems likely she ascended to the ridge from the spanish side, then fell on to the french side
I saw Dan's map as well - which tends to confirm she fell off the ridge in between Pic de la Glere and Port de la Glere.
The only reasonable explanation (IMO) is she climbed to the ridge crest from the Spanish side, which although steep - does not appear to be difficult. Where exactly on the ridge she fell from, we don't know unless they reveal the exact location where she was found.