Found Deceased Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020 #3

[RickshawFan]

Not a criticism, just look like garlic cloves to me. I've never seen anyone eat gnocchi sans a speck of saucing or other "accoutrements" visible. I would have thought they'd maybe splurge on a more, well "flavorful" meal during a period of respite, so wondering what's in that pot!

I'm thinking lentils in that pot. Vegan Gnocchi: no protein or fat.

 

[RickshawFan]

Interesting. I think another example of this is what I mentioned earlier. DC cites as a reason for a high probability of kidnapping/foul play that ED was well within her expertise level and that there were few places where one could have an accident (aside from the summit peak itself, apparently.) The maps and photos that I've seen here, as well as local "testimony", bear a different story though; namely that a serious accident wouldn't be at all improbable, even given her "level of expertise/preperation".

I get dizzy even looking at that mountain lol. No way I'd go up there; I'd have settled in on a rock making tea and eating cookies while everyone else topped the Pic. I could look at those lakes for hours. At any rate, that's just different strokes for different folks, not a comment about whether or not to make the ascent.

 

[Hatty]

Interesting. I think another example of this is what I mentioned earlier. DC cites as a reason for a high probability of kidnapping/foul play that ED was well within her expertise level and that there were few places where one could have an accident (aside from the summit peak itself, apparently.) The maps and photos that I've seen here, as well as local "testimony", bear a different story though; namely that a serious accident wouldn't be at all improbable, even given her "level of expertise/preperation".

Yep, anyone can trip - even if it’s just over their own foot, or an undone shoelace.

 

[Hatty]

Interesting. I think another example of this is what I mentioned earlier. DC cites as a reason for a high probability of kidnapping/foul play that ED was well within her expertise level and that there were few places where one could have an accident (aside from the summit peak itself, apparently.) The maps and photos that I've seen here, as well as local "testimony", bear a different story though; namely that a serious accident wouldn't be at all improbable, even given her "level of expertise/preperation".

Yep, anyone can trip - even if it’s just over their own foot, or an undone shoelace.

@Grouse, FWIW, here is a pic of some sort of lettuce leaves from a YouTube video of ED / DC about to eat dinner at an apartment they leased for the night (29/8/2020)

View attachment 279958

Source of image: YouTube video from Dan and Esther 29/8/2020

Savoy cabbage I reckon.

 

[Hatty]

You can’t say they’re not healthy eaters, if she went up the mountain with a McDonald’s take away you’d all be complaining she died of a heart attack

I’m guessing that hitting that freezing water and the shock of it could potentially bring on a heart attack anyway.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I just read the dossier again and it doesnt confirm exactly what food she had with her. Can someone remind me of our source for that?

 

[RickshawFan]

I don't know anything about drones. How easy would it be to send a drone off the top of the Pic to look at those slopes? There would probably be big updrafts and maybe wind, but presumably one flank of the mountain would be in the lee.

 

[10ofRods]

You can’t say they’re not healthy eaters, if she went up the mountain with a McDonald’s take away you’d all be complaining she died of a heart attack

As a human biologist, I surely can say it about what we know so far. And exertion of the type that RickShaw and others are used to (and I used to do) makes caloric needs higher. This isn't bias, it's common sense.

You surely seem to be minimizing that one of Esther's last encounters involved asking/begging for food.

 

[10ofRods]

I very much agree unfortunately. To add to that here...
What the dossier also loudly suppresses is the FACT that it was November (and not July), the trip was solo, and, because of COVID, there was absolutely no one around to be helpful in case of an accident. IMO, this is not within anyone's "expertise level". A risk-tolerant individual might attempt and enjoy a trip like that, but nothing can prepare you for it.
And, I will insist, not taking adequate nutrition is a HUGE red flag that this person did not have the expertise needed for this hike even if it had been June and there was no COVID.

If the hiker ED met on a previous trip had potatoes and tuna plus some extra just in case (in this instance ED evidently needed it), well, that's expertise. That hiker would be around the standard 2 lbs per person of food per day if you extrapolated that meal, and it's a great choice of items, filling, appropriate for the situation, and nutrient-rich. On a budget, no less. That's what expertise looks like.

Maybe I sound like a wet blanket, but every detail that gets added to this story makes me more alarmed.

Me too. And one danger of any wilderness is other people - in this case, perhaps, the route to/from the trailhead (which ED seems to have used a few times) seems to necessitate hitchhiking. Since she had already gone up, saying she was going to overnight, but then descended to the campervan on a previous trip, it's possible she did the same thing on the night she went missing.

We're seeing upticks in crimes against women all over the US, due to COVID and reduced amount of "eyes on the street." It's actually really eerie here where I live. A year ago, I would have been sure to encounter a few of my neighbors, out in their yards or out walking, when I walked. Now, it's a pretty lonesome place.

There's also some chance, I suppose, of her attempting to walk along that road back to her campervan and being hit by a car. I don't recall hearing whether they searched both sides of the road along the entire length and I haven't looked at pictures of it. Authorities seem fairly confident that she's not still up there on that mountain.

 

[Quietey]

Dan, who knows her best, has given such a loving and detailed description of Esther in his dossier. She certainly is physically strong and she is experienced in regard to the activities that comprise their lifestyle. She is also very intelligent and her multiple degrees confirm this.

Emotionally, Esther is exquisitely sensitive and abundantly caring. Dan tells us this and we have her own social media to confirm this. But IMO, this aspect of this lovely woman is both her blessing and her curse.

People, even those of us posting here, are drawn to her as she exudes such a depth of caring and emotional intelligence. She feels everything so deeply. Maybe far too deeply for her own mental health. I sense she is a bit of people pleaser. Was she really carrying such a tiny bit of nourishment to “travel light” or was she trying not to not impact an already strained budget?

So i wonder in my speculation, how would an overly sensitive person like Esther bring herself...perhaps...to make changes in her life that might devastate her partner of so many years? How does she self-care...which she writes continually about...if emotionally, she knows that what her self-care requires, will upturn a loved ones entire world?

Esther liked to travel light but I think she was weighted down with many, many emotional burdens on this trip. As an emotional person myself, I can attest to the distraction that envelops your brain when emotion assumes control. I wonder if all those calls, contacts on the top of the Pic just enveloped her mind as she proceeded on and contributed to a careless fatal mistake?

Or did she decide that it all seemed too complicated. All speculation on my part of course.

This is a lovely post. I feel like this post, along with Hatty's post on the same page, made us all stop and take stock, and sort of changed the course of the thread. I think it did us good to be reminded of Esther's talents, achievements and above all her sweet nature.

 

[Quietey]

FATMAP | Discover a world of adventure...
This is a really good 3D model of the topography of the walking route - only downside is the bit we could do with seeing clearly the bit over the passage to the lacs is sadly in shadow
ETA: sorry was hoping it would link to the refuge and lakes, not just the general whole world

This is amazing! I'm really starting to understand the terrain and trails much more now.

 

[Rhomal]

I don't know anything about drones. How easy would it be to send a drone off the top of the Pic to look at those slopes? There would probably be big updrafts and maybe wind, but presumably one flank of the mountain would be in the lee.

Easy enough as long as winds not too strong.

 

[otto]

Easy enough as long as winds not too strong.

There's footage online of drones over mountain lakes. It's impossible to see the bottom of a 45 m deep lake.

 

[RickshawFan]

As a human biologist, I surely can say it about what we know so far. And exertion of the type that RickShaw and others are used to (and I used to do) makes caloric needs higher. This isn't bias, it's common sense.

You surely seem to be minimizing that one of Esther's last encounters involved asking/begging for food.

I didn't even experience my relationship with food as appetite. It was more like an elemental drive. I didn't really feel hungry; I just had to eat. In that situation, the body uses food like jet fuel. For women, too, you're building muscle all over, and those muscles are very demanding! This was definitely no time to get skimpy on food.

 

[Puzzles]

I just read the dossier again and it doesnt confirm exactly what food she had with her. Can someone remind me of our source for that?

BBM Hi HongKongPhooey, ED's hiking companion, as quoted the Daily Mail:

"Ms Adomaityte, who was born in Lithuania but is fluent in Spanish and knows the Pyrenees well, added: 'The one thing that did surprise me about Esther was how little food she took with her on the last hike we did together.

'We left on the afternoon of November 12 and returned the following day around midday.

'Esther only took dried oats, a red pepper and a small lettuce. I ended up sharing the food I'd taken for myself when we reached a refuge for the night called Refugio de Pescadores, which included a can of tuna and potatoes we heated up in the evening and an apple the following morning."

 

[Puzzles]

The meal ED and DC shared, as shown in the photograph RedHaus gave us upthread, is alarmingly different from what Esther took as provisions when hiking and overnighting with LA – dried oats, a red pepper and a small lettuce.

LA states "We left on the afternoon of November 12 and returned the following day around midday."
So Esther's meagre rations were for a dinner and a breakfast. Was this from lack of funds?

Ten days later, when she asked the skier for "fruit, or something fresh" and received nothing, she reportedly disappeared less than an hour later, just after her last (known) communication with DC.

It could be she simply had no money left to have purchased any food at all for her last known hiking day.

We know from what she's told us she struggled with her inner world. Her outer world perhaps distressed her also, with Covid and Brexit and DC wanting to end their nomadic lifestyle.

She may have had no means to sustain herself at all, and no clear way to escape what might have seemed to be insurmountable predicaments for her tender, undernourished self. No food, no gas for the camper. No way out. Unless she asked DC for help, which she may not have been able to do. But she has other family she could surely confide in and ask for help, if she needed it – her mum, her dad, and her aunt.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Thanks Puzzles. So our info is based on what we have heard about previous hikes, not specifically the last one if I'm understanding correctly.

 

[otto]

Thanks Puzzles. So our info is based on what we have heard about previous hikes, not specifically the last one if I'm understanding correctly.

Esther asked a stranger for fruit an hour before her last contact with her partner. They did not give her any food.

 

[PeggyHenry]

Yes we have three individual witnesses who encounter Esther and mention ‘food’. Two of these share their own rations with Esther and the third is asked for fresh food.
Is this due to issues with finance or Esther’s desire to exert extreme controls over her food intake. Either way it is odd. If finances had run out she should have returned home or organised more. Is she punishing herself somehow? An earlier video of her shows Esther talking about her beliefs that food will be there for her if she needs it .. by the kindness of others.
This isn’t a demonstration of expert hiker behaviour, and yet she is an experienced hiker. Heading up a mountain at 3 pm and asking for fruit or something fresh means that maybe she only had some oats with her for her overnight stay i. e she was missing the red pepper and small lettuce element ( that she appeared to believe were satisfactory provisions for an overnight hike!)

 

[Hatty]

Me too. And one danger of any wilderness is other people - in this case, perhaps, the route to/from the trailhead (which ED seems to have used a few times) seems to necessitate hitchhiking. Since she had already gone up, saying she was going to overnight, but then descended to the campervan on a previous trip, it's possible she did the same thing on the night she went missing.

We're seeing upticks in crimes against women all over the US, due to COVID and reduced amount of "eyes on the street." It's actually really eerie here where I live. A year ago, I would have been sure to encounter a few of my neighbors, out in their yards or out walking, when I walked. Now, it's a pretty lonesome place.

There's also some chance, I suppose, of her attempting to walk along that road back to her campervan and being hit by a car. I don't recall hearing whether they searched both sides of the road along the entire length and I haven't looked at pictures of it. Authorities seem fairly confident that she's not still up there on that mountain.

Yes indeed.I’ve mentioned the “being hit by a car” possibility up thread and wonder if resources will allow a search of the area surrounding the road back to the camper van to be undertaken. To our knowledge this hasn’t been done but the police are of course in possession of masses more information and will have their reasons.

ED’s comment of “I hope the Refuge has a winter room” certainly suggests the idea of bivouacing/camping wasn’t appealing to her. If the Refuge winter room didn’t appeal to her either, then she may well have decided to press onwards on her route or down to the road.