Villanua (Huesca) – High mountain rescue specialists from the Guardia Civil recovered on Sunday the body of a 53-year-old mountaineer from Madrid who had been missing since Saturday during an ascent in the Aragonese Pyrenees.

His family raised the alarm at 17:50 on Saturday with a call to 112 SOS Aragon. They reported that he had set out on a route from Villanua (Huesca) toward Collarada and had stopped answering phone calls.

The alert mobilised the GREIM unit of Jaca, which sent four agents and a dog trained in searching for people. The search took place in extreme conditions, with strong gusts of wind, intense cold and snow.

At 00:30 on Sunday, the Guardia Civil located the mountaineer’s body. He is believed to have died after a fall down a steep slope.

The recovery of the body was completed at 7:30 after a night operation involving several responders. Over the same weekend, three other rescue operations were carried out in different parts of the Pyrenees.

In one case, the GREIM of Benasque evacuated a 54-year-old man from Vilanova del Valles (Barcelona) on Saturday due to a possible heart attack after he briefly lost consciousness on a trail 500 metres from the Llanos del Hospital car park in Huesca. He was airlifted by the 112 Aragon helicopter.

That same day, a 71-year-old French hiker was taken to San Jorge Hospital in Huesca with an ankle sprain after tripping on the circular Camino del Cielo route in Riglos (Huesca).

Separately, on Tuesday 18 November, a 50-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman, both from Jaca, were rescued after becoming disoriented in the Bosque del Betato area in Piedrafita de Jaca (Huesca).

The Guardia Civil reminded mountaineers of the importance of planning routes properly, checking the weather and carrying suitable equipment to avoid accidents in especially adverse conditions at this time of year.

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