Staff Reporter
Police have resumed the search for missing British hiker Esther Dingley who disappeared in the Spanish Pyrenees last November while walking to reach her boyfriend on the other side of the border.
Ms Dingley, 37, last made contact with her boyfriend Dan Colegate on November 22.
Despite a huge search on both sides of the border, no trace has been found of Ms Dingley who had been touring Europe with Mr Colegate, 38, for six years before she went missing.
The search was called off because of heavy snow and bad weather.
Specialist Civil Guard officers from a search and rescue unit have this week combed the 8,796ft Pico Salvaguardia mountain in the Spanish Pyrenees.
“The search, as we have already told Esther’s family, will not be as large as last year but from June 19 we will use a helicopter to help searchers,” a Spanish police spokesman said.
Mr Colegate, a business development manager, revealed in April that he had been searching the lower reaches of the Spanish Pyrenees to try to find Ms Dingley.
“Although I still find it very hard to understand why Esther was not found in November if she had suffered an accident, a feeling that deepens the more time I spend in the area, I will continue to search because that is all I can do,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Snow on the north face of the French side of the peak of Pico Salvaguardia has meant that searches there must wait until later this summer.
READ MORE:
- Boyfriend of missing hiker Esther Dingley says mystery surrounding her disappearance is ‘agonising’ as he vows to continue search
- Snow may halt rescue search for British hiker Esther Dingley last seen in Spain
