Found Deceased Spain - Esther Dingley, from UK, missing in the Pyrenees, November 2020 #6

[RaincloudBee]

I reckon foul play. I might be a bit biased though because I had a stalker ex once, and the trauma makes me paranoid all men are like that, so I don't wana point the finger in case I am wrong. But have all the hikers and people who were close to her/met her in the last few days of her life been checked out thoroughly? She could have just met and chatted to a psycho by chance and he went back for her. Predators spot opportunities and there have been other disappearances in that area.

 

[otto]

Last contact Nov 22, reported missing Nov 25, search begins Nov 26, snow and cloud at higher elevations Nov 26 and 27, partial snow melt until Dec 1, heavy snow Dec 2.

"On this specific hike she had indicated she would return to the motorhome in Benasque by Wednesday 25th at the latest (the day she was reported missing). She had also reported that mobile phone signal was poor in the area so people should not worry if she wasn’t in touch every day." ...

The search for Esther commenced at first light on Thursday 26th November, the morning after she was due to return to the motorhome in Benasque, with search teams deployed in both France and Spain, some walking with dogs and some in helicopters flying over the area. These are highly trained, highly proficient experts who have been working in this specific area of the mountains for many years. They know the terrain and locations that are likely to cause difficult for hikers.

For the first two days of the search, visibility on Pic de Sauvegarde was hampered slightly by a light dusting of snow and some cloud, although nothing that prevented the search teams ascending the routes from both sides of the mountain and the helicopters could still see most of the mountainside. From Saturday 27th – Tuesday 1st December, the sunny weather returned, the light dusting of snow mostly melted and visibility was excellent. (dossier)
​

Early confusion regarding route.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13410904/missing-hiker-esther-dingley-entombed-ice-fears/

Hunt for missing British hiker in the Pyrenees could be called off 'until spring' | Daily Mail Online

 

[otto]

Historic map of the area (legend on bottom, numbers on top).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...-_Fonds_Ancely_-_B315556101_A_GORSE_3_014.jpg

 

[otto]

This is the link that includes the video about the lammergeier dropping bones to get to the bone marrow.

11 Facts About the Bone-Eating Bearded Vulture

 

[JnRyan]

I had been following this case so I was surprised to learn that something was found last week. Unfortunately this was the outcome that was the most likely. I hope LE learns more about the circumstances, but I believe an accident is most likely.

 

[Steve13]

Please help me out with these locations. Her final WhatsApp with Dan was from the Pic de Sauvegarde. And she told him she was going eastwards to the Refuge de Venasque. In order for her remains to have being found at Port de la Glere wouldn't she have needed to go westwards after the chat with Dan? I'm assuming she went missing shortly after the call as no further phone signal from her. But at 4pm wouldn't she have needed to be getting to the refuge?

Six teams search for Briton missing in Pyrenees - BBC News

Hi. There's a tremendous wealth of posts here. I'd start at the first string and work my forwards if I were you now. I did that when I joined. It's amazingly useful. best, Steve

 

[RedHaus]

One scenario several of us considered long ago (e.g. Thread #2 or 3 perhaps) was whether ED went to Maladeta Glacier, which sits west of both Ports de V and G. The base of the glacier is accessible by a trail near the Cabane de la Besurta. Given the location of where ED died is still a mystery, I thought I'd resurrect this scenario as it may fit.

From her own FB words, ED considered glaciers "mystical". She was therefore likely attracted to them, with fascination.

What if, as many here speculate, ED descended from pic de S and returned to Cabane de la Besurta, the evening of 22/11. And rather than immediately heading along a clockwise trek to Port de la Glere, ED decided to poke around Maladeta Glacier, the base of which is very near the Cabane. Or maybe she always intended to go to Maladeta and kept that quiet.

If she did go to Maladeta Glacier, perhaps she had a fatal or near-fatal accident (then died). It is a very rocky steep.

But also, perhaps as some of us may still ponder, ED could have committed suicide in her mystical setting. Not sure how many others think this way at this point, but I do believe there remains a 50% chance ED was focused on ending her life.

 

[Officer Dibble]

One scenario several of us considered long ago (e.g. Thread #2 or 3 perhaps) was whether ED went to Maladeta Glacier, which sits west of both Ports de V and G. The base of the glacier is accessible by a trail near the Cabane de la Besurta. Given the location of where ED died is still a mystery, I thought I'd resurrect this scenario as it may fit.

From her own FB words, ED considered glaciers "mystical". She was therefore likely attracted to them, with fascination.

What if, as many here speculate, ED descended from pic de S and returned to Cabane de la Besurta, the evening of 22/11. And rather than immediately heading along a clockwise trek to Port de la Glere, ED decided to poke around Maladeta Glacier, the base of which is very near the Cabane. Or maybe she always intended to go to Maladeta and kept that quiet.

If she did go to Maladeta Glacier, perhaps she had a fatal or near-fatal accident (then died). It is a very rocky steep.

But also, perhaps as some of us may still ponder, ED could have committed suicide in her mystical setting. Not sure how many others think this way at this point, but I do believe there remains a 50% chance ED was focused on ending her life.

OR perhaps she had a brain aneurism then fell or something similar. People do get such things, sadly. I wonder if we will ever have an idea what happened and can only hope for the family and friends that they do find something out to explain it.

 

[NoSI]

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir

This quote will always remind me of Esther! She died where she felt most alive, but I can't help but feeling somber... I just hope she didn't suffer...
RIP Esther!!!

 

[NoSI]

I still believe it was tragic accident. The suicide theory gets me thinking as well...

There is increasing research that the higher in elevation we live the higher the suicide rate... Nobody is certain why that is the case, but the leading theory is hypoxia, or lack of adequate oxygen to the brain. If the was indeed depressed at baseline, socially isolated, and hiking at high elevations for an extended period of time... it is possible.

Some takeaways:

- “Altitude is a well-known cause of hypoxia,” the authors say, “and the greater the elevation, the greater the hypoxia. Chronic hypoxia also is thought to increase mood disturbances, especially in patients with emotional instability.

- One of the researchers has continued that study, and thinks he’s closer to solving the mystery. In the Science.Mic article, writer Theresa Fisher spoke with Utah neuroscientist Perry Renshaw about his findings. Renshaw told her that he believes altitude messes with our bodies’ levels of dopamine and serotonin, chemicals that regulate our sense of happiness. Hypoxia, he says, causes serotonin to go down in our brains (which usually results in depression) and dopamine to increase (which usually creates a sense of euphoria, e.g. “runner’s high”).

Just something to consider. As mentioned above, I still believe she had a tragic accident.

RIP Esther!

Sources: Is altitude causing suicide in the West?, Could Altitude Partially Explain Suicide, Mental Health Issues In The Mountain West?

 

[RickshawFan]

Why did Esther set off on her treck so late in the day? There were only a few hours of daylight left and darkness falls suddenly down there - darkness falls gradually in the UK.

She might have set off the next morning from the Cabane de Besurtas after scrambling down there from the Pic or something like that. She might not have been intimidated about making that scramble quickly, because she'd done it the day before.

 

[RickshawFan]

I think though the thought is that if travelling downhill into France from Porte de la Glere it is a very very steep slope (referencing previously posted pictures), so you would fall and keep going, not fall in place.


Again referencing prior pictures, it is a cliff. 500m of scree with a switchback trail running through then a cliff.


Yes, this.

Yep.

If you were ascending, and lucky, you'd fall face first and not slide. If descending, there's nothing to stop you.
Even if you were lucky enough to be on switchbacks (minimizing steepness), this doesn't help if you're falling. You can slide right through the apex of a switchback.
The high likelihood IMO is ED was descending. I don't believe the rest of the remains will be far away.

 

[RickshawFan]

I'm curious about something.
- There's confirmation that ED is dead. Missing hiker, confirmed dead, case closed.
-LE/SAR are very clear they're busy people, and resources have to be allocated to the current crop of missing hikers, people who need rescues, etc.

Why are LE/SAR still out there looking and using what they have made clear are precious resources that have to be judiciously allocated? That are dispensed according to statistical benefits, as they've mentioned before? It's not normal IMO for these professionals to keep looking at this point.
If they were solid about accident/suicide, I'm thinking, LE/SAR would simply let volunteer groups pick up gear remains, etc. Instead, they're still on the case, determined to find a cause? I find this very odd. I guess they haven't ruled out a cause OTHER than accident/suicide.

 

[RickshawFan]

View attachment 306713 View attachment 306714 View attachment 306715 Images from Otto on Thread #5

The red arrow indicates the trail, and the yellow marker is 500m

I'm all of a sudden in awe at the trail runner who was running (up?) this thing when s/he spotted the skull. In my dreams...

 

[RickshawFan]

Please help me out with these locations. Her final WhatsApp with Dan was from the Pic de Sauvegarde. And she told him she was going eastwards to the Refuge de Venasque. In order for her remains to have being found at Port de la Glere wouldn't she have needed to go westwards after the chat with Dan? I'm assuming she went missing shortly after the call as no further phone signal from her. But at 4pm wouldn't she have needed to be getting to the refuge?

Six teams search for Briton missing in Pyrenees - BBC News

ED didn't say she was going to the R de V. DC evidently ASSUMED she was going there. But there was no evidence she actually went there, either.
ED could have headed back down to the Cabane, where she'd spent the night before. She did imply she wouldn't be available: in fact, there's no cell service at the Cabane.

 

[Seni]

I'm curious about something.
- There's confirmation that ED is dead. Missing hiker, confirmed dead, case closed.
-LE/SAR are very clear they're busy people, and resources have to be allocated to the current crop of missing hikers, people who need rescues, etc.

Why are LE/SAR still out there looking and using what they have made clear are precious resources that have to be judiciously allocated? That are dispensed according to statistical benefits, as they've mentioned before? It's not normal IMO for these professionals to keep looking at this point.
If they were solid about accident/suicide, I'm thinking, LE/SAR would simply let volunteer groups pick up gear remains, etc. Instead, they're still on the case, determined to find a cause? I find this very odd. I guess they haven't ruled out a cause OTHER than accident/suicide.

Rickshaw hola, I'm curious about that too. LE are not yet winding up their case, they are not satisified.

When you think about our posts early in the first threads, we did not pay much attention to Esther undertaking these hikes: maybe we were caught up by the articles and hypes to an extent. The more I have thought about her whole adventure, the more it spooks me out as a very frightening and risky thing to do. Not helped by the food details etc.

We have banged on about inappropriate supplies, setting off times and unknown routes. We have the dossier and also their website as reference.

I think this was the only time Esther made such a trip alone, my opinion is that she was not very happy, nor 100% sure of what she was doing, but she needed to get out.

IMO

 

[KBlackRabbit]

I don’t think she was suicidal, I think she wandered over to a steeper area and, between poor footing, windy weather, and a backpack that didn’t fit quite right and could have overbalanced her, she fell and injured herself badly enough that she couldn’t rescue herself.

I don’t think she want to Maladeta, it’s way too steep and one needs ice climbing gear.

 

[RedHaus]

I don’t think she want to Maladeta, it’s way too steep and one needs ice climbing gear.

RSBM

Thanks, @KBlackRabbit. Can't disagree with you at all. But I do want to point out that I wasn't talking about ED actually climbing the face of the glacier. I believe the discussion here way back was ED exploring and using the trail(s?) up the slope towards the glacier. IIRC, there's enough terrain and trails for someone to explore beneath the Glacier altitude.

 

[DFR3217]

I was just reading the early pages of the last thread. Talking about Esther's experience as a solo hiker. The conclusion seemed to be she didn't have much. In relationships it's easy to get dependent on the other person. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if Dan was starting to want to live in an actual house, while Esther still wanted to go trekking, and live in a van, then maybe this trip was a test for herself that she could do it on her own. I can relate to this, but it might just be me projecting my own issues on to her. I live on my own, after getting divorced, and there are things that I let my ex-husband do that I now have to do on my own, and sometimes I'm scared to. It's very easy to let the other person do everything for you. That doesn't necessarily mean it was a bad relationship, but she may just have realised how dependent she was on him, and that she needed to do it herself, and just tried something too hard for herself on her own, she did reach the summit a little late in the afternoon. Maybe she was pushing herself, rather than planning logically. That would be a very sad ending. Just speculation, but after reading those pages this thought came into my head.

 

[PeggyHenry]

The police have made the point publicly that foul play is not ruled out at this stage. Thinking back to other cases of people who have been lost or missing in mountains.. when and if they are located, is it usual to make this point publicly? For the police to do this I believe they have a real reason driving them on. My feeling from the first time I read about Esther was that Foul play played some part. In the latter months I get the feeling there was a sort of cat and mouse scenario going on. An accident will always be a possibility and maybe we won’t get to know for sure… but the police certainly aren’t accepting that this was an accident just yet