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

[EDImath]

I think this is the same spot, you can see the sign. If you fancy checking, look for Parking Literola on the map and muck about with street view until the mountains align.

View attachment 275504

Well done though, we now know this is where mystery hiker was parked up!!! Another bit of the jigsaw.

Ah great that’s good, thanks for clarifying

 

[VicBlazey]

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Apologies if this has been previously discussed, but I wonder why ED had started to post on her separate Insta again in the last couple of months after quite a period of inactivity?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

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Apologies if this has been previously discussed, but I wonder why ED had started to post on her separate Insta again in the last couple of months after quite a period of inactivity?

I don't know, but damn she makes me feel bad with all the healthy stuff!

(as I sit on the sofa dunking more chocolate digestives in my cuppa)

 

[otto]

Welcome!

My word you have a keen eye... it's taken me a while but do you mean this pic (original pic and zoomed in).

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That looks like the top of a sign.

 

[Satchie]

She was planning to stay in the Refuge de Venasque the second night (22 November). She went up to the mountains and got a ride from Mr Ballarín on 21 November, the day before. We don't know where she slept the night from 21 to 22 as far as I am aware.

That could be true, that she camped out on the 21st. I have read so much contradictory evidence, and some of it in translation.

I don't know where she would have hiked, camped, and then returned to Sauveguard late in the day, but it is possible. I would worry about using that much juice on my phone, to transmit so many photos of the first peak, when she had more 3 more nights out.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

That looks like the top of a sign.

It is, scroll to top of this page

 

[Kike76]

You can see why on 19th she might have accepted a lift back to Benasque after a bad experience with poor weather. It is about an 8km hike from the above car park to Benasque . Bear in mind on 21st she probably hiked back uphill from Benasque passing this area to the foothills of Sauvegarde so not surprising she only started ascending late in the day.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

You can see why on 19th she might have accepted a lift back to Benasque after a bad experience with poor weather. It is about an 8km hike from the above car park to Benasque . Bear in mind on 21st she probably hiked back uphill from Benasque passing this area to the foothills of Sauvegarde so not surprising she only started ascending late in the day.

Absolutely. On 21st she got a lift with Ballarin and his grandson, up to Plan d'Estan which is another 6km ish further up from Literola

This map shows the 4 points

Benasque - where campervan is
Parking Literola - where rainbow was / mystery hikers car
Plan d'Estan - where she was dropped off on 21st
Sauvegard - about a mile from Plan d'Estan

Google Maps

(PS when I post map links, do they show up as a normal map view or aerial view in 3D? Because the 3D really helps set the scene, as it were)

 

[Satchie]

You can see why on 19th she might have accepted a lift back to Benasque after a bad experience with poor weather. It is about an 8km hike from the above car park to Benasque . Bear in mind on 21st she probably hiked back uphill from Benasque passing this area to the foothills of Sauvegarde so not surprising she only started ascending late in the day.

So this 2nd guy offered her a lift starting at 10:30 am on the 21st to Sauvegarde, per the Daily Mail. She reached the peak at 1 pm or so and took lots of photos.

The she hiked somewhere unknown until dark, stayed somewhere unknown, uploaded all her photos from the peak, and the next day either continued on to hike some kind of loop... or started out around 1 pm to retrace her steps back to Sauvegard...

Just looking at the maps, it's not obvious to me where she would have stayed the night of the 21st. I'd assumed she'd just been on a day hike and gone back to her van.

 

[LadyL]

In both lenses, where the frame curves near her nose, does anyone see 1) a black labrador type dog with white lead around neck and 2) figure of a man, with short white hair ?

no all I see is her hand extended taking the selfie (in her right lens)

ETA: actually I do see what looks like a black dog with white collar in her left lens but no human

 

[CoverMeCagney]

So this 2nd guy offered her a lift starting at 10:30 am on the 21st to Sauvegarde, per the Daily Mail. She reached the peak at 1 pm or so and took lots of photos.

The she hiked somewhere unknown until dark, stayed somewhere unknown, uploaded all her photos from the peak, and the next day either continued on to hike some kind of loop... or started out around 1 pm to retrace her steps back to Sauvegard...

Just looking at the maps, it's not obvious to me where she would have stayed the night of the 21st. I'd assumed she'd just been on a day hike and gone back to her van.

I wonder if she stayed at Refugio/Shelter Plan d'Estan, which has a small mountain cabin people can stay in. It's about 1km from the base of the trail leading Sauvegarde.

Maps and image links here:

refugio plan d'estan - Google Search

 

[Grouse]

Yes, and the maps make this clear. So I'm really confused why people are saying there was more than one route and therefore someone could have approached her from the other side.

Are we just all really confused?

I think it's pretty clear that there's only one way up on the final stretch to the summit. But that's only the last bit of the climb, there are multiple routes up the mountain up to that point.

I agree it is all getting confused on here now though. So much information been posted upthread now that is getting missed/lost/ignored and it's all starting to go round in circles.

 

[RickshawFan]

A few pages ago in this several people mentioned again that she went up Pic de Sauvegarde on both 19th and 22nd. I posted about this earlier but would point out the evidence she was up there on 19th is absent. She said on 19th she was up a 2550m mountain. That is not Sauvegarde which has a higher peak elevation.

Searching the local mountains I spotted Agujas de Perramo is 2550m on the north side of the valley up from Benasque (less far than Sauvegarde) and I think it was up this that she got caught out by poor weather and came down with someone and got a lift back to Benasque.

I hypothesise after her poor weather encounter in 19th she hung around in Benasque recovering and refuelling before heading back up the valley from Benasque on 22nd and he fact she was seen starting up Sauvgarde late in the day indicates she had hiked up from Benasque

It would also make less sense for her to go up Sauvegarde twice (why tick that off the list twice ?)

I understood the plan to be something like this. I also haven't seen convincing evidence that she went up the same mountain twice.

 

[Grouse]

A final post to try to clarify my view that Esther may have fallen in the lake. In the attached file I have highlighted what I think is the descent path from the Pic de Sauvegarde that Esther would have taken to the Refuge de Vensaque.

I've drawn a green line just below what I think shows the descent path, and a red line showing where a person could, I think, easily slip down a steep slope of loose scree into the lake.

And here is a link on google - the view is facing up towards Sauvegarde from roughly where the Refuge de Venasque is.

Google Maps

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I think it's pretty clear that there's only one way up on the final stretch to the summit. But that's only the last bit of the climb, there are multiple routes up the mountain up to that point.

I agree it is all getting confused on here now though. So much information been posted upthread now that is getting missed/lost/ignored and it's all starting to go round in circles.

Which is why it'd be really useful to know exactly where the skier saw Esther, as without that information we can't possibly decide on whether there were other people up there. I just think, because he said she was climbing Sauvegarde, he can only have met her between Port de V and the top of Sauvegarde. And there's only one way to do that, so therefore he would know who else was up there.

Hang on, I'll go and scribble on another map....



Red is the trail
Blue V for Port de Venasque

 

[Grouse]

A few pages ago in this several people mentioned again that she went up Pic de Sauvegarde on both 19th and 22nd. I posted about this earlier but would point out the evidence she was up there on 19th is absent.

Just more of the confusion that is building in this thread . Not the 19th and 22nd, it was the 21st and 22nd. Check it out on Instagram it is definitely on there. She definitely went up twice.

 

[Grouse]

Which is why it'd be really useful to know exactly where the skier saw Esther,

Yes, exactly, that would take away a lot of the guesswork.

 

[Grouse]

I think this is the same spot, you can see the sign. If you fancy checking, look for Parking Literola on the map and muck about with street view until the mountains align (obviously can't get the exact angle!)

View attachment 275504View attachment 275508

Well done though, thanks to clues from @EDImath and @Kike76, we now know this is where mystery hiker was parked up!!! Another bit of the jigsaw.

Good stuff, do you have a map reference for that?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

A final post to try to clarify my view that Esther may have fallen in the lake. In the attached file I have highlighted what I think is the descent path from the Pic de Sauvegarde that Esther would have taken to the Refuge de Vensaque.

I've drawn a green line just below what I think shows the descent path, and a red line showing where a person could, I think, easily slip down a steep slope of loose scree into the lake.

And here is a link on google - the view is facing up towards Sauvegarde from roughly where the Refuge de Venasque is.

Google Maps

There is so much scree and loose earth all over the place, but yes, the spot you've highlighted would almost certainly end in that lake. You'd really hope the French police checked it out.

I can see why both police forces have said they don't think Esther is there. It's a clear route from A to B to C, she probably stayed on or very near the track as it was too slippy or steep otherwise. If she's fallen she should've been found.

Did she go towards the refuge as planned? Was anyone there?

Or did she go back towards the road for reasons unknown, and get a lift somewhere?

And will we EVER know?!

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Good stuff, do you have a map reference for that?

Google Maps

(drive slightly north, the sign is just before the white van)

Actually, his vehicle could easily have been parked further north on that road, including at the Llanos del Hospital where he could have been staying. I think that got suggested early in the thread.