Mountain blizzards halt hunt for Esther
Fears grow for missing Brit hiker
RESCUERS abandoned the search for Esther Dingley, the British hiker missing in the Pyrenees, yesterday due to blizzards in the mountains.
It is feared Esther, 37, last heard from on November 22, may have fallen into one of the region’s many crevasses.
French police chief Laurent Gerin, covering Bagnères-de-Luchon, said: “Snow has fallen since she has disappeared. It is very bad for the search.
“We hope she went off her planned route, and that she comes back to her car with a big smile on her face. “But we have to check everything.” Esther, from Durham, was reported missing by boyfriend Dan Colegate, 38, on November
25. He told the Mirror he was grateful for messages of support from home, but said:
“I prefer to let the police manage what information is in the public domain.” Esther’s aunt Elizabeth Wolsey Morgan said. “Her father Henry is broken. He’s in pieces.”
Ms Morgan has told of growing fears that her niece has been kidnapped.
At 3pm on the day Dan last heard from Esther, Marti Vigo del Arco, a Spanish Olympic skier, was hiking down a trail when he met an English woman heading up the Pic de Sauvegarde, on the French border with Spain.
Marti, 22, told Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper: “She asked us if we had a piece of fruit or something fresh, but we didn’t have anything. She carried on up.” At around 4pm that day, Esther sent Dan a selfie from the 8,983ft summit. Police have put up missing posters and want to trace a hiker who gave Esther a lift three days before she vanished.