Brit, 25, dies in horror mountaineering accident in Spain after plunging to his death from notorious Devil’s Pass crest
- The British man, 25, was trying to reach the peak of Antobo in northern Spain
- He fell to his death from the ‘Paso del Diablo’ – a famously dangerous pass
- The man has not yet been identified but police confirmed he was from the UK
- Several people have died on the treacherous pass trying to reach the summit
A British has died after falling to his death from the notorious ‘Devil’s Pass’ mountain in northern Spain.
The 25 year-old is believed to have fallen from the hill as he tried to reach a 4,367ft limestone mountain peak in the Basque Country called Anboto.
His lifeless body was found on the morning of Friday June 24 by search and rescue teams.
Police sources confirmed on Saturday June 25 that the dead man was a 25 year-old Brit.
He had been climbing with a British friend when he fell to his death on the afternoon of Thursday June 23.
It was not immediately clear if the pair live in Spain or were on holiday in the area.
The man’s body was discovered in the early hours of Friday June 25 – a day after he had gone missing
Several people have died trying to reach the peak of the 4,367ft mountain
They are not thought to be professional mountaineers and are believed to work as delivery drivers.
One local report said they were staying at a hotel in Eibar, an industrial town in the province of Gipuzkoa which lies on the banks of the River Ego.
The same report said the two friends split up and the dead man continued his climb alone before tragedy struck for reasons which are expected to form part of an ongoing investigation.
He is thought to have got caught in a storm as he tried to reach the mountain summit on the Devil’s Pass between Alluitz, the second highest peak of the Urkiola mountain range, and the highest peak Anboto.
Sources said they believed he could have been trying to descend from the crest, which can be treacherous in wet weather, when he fell.
A spokesman for the region’s Ertzaintza police force confirmed: ‘Emergency services have located the lifeless body of the mountaineer who we had been searching for since Thursday evening.
Basque search and rescue teams recovered the body, with police confirming it was that of a British man on Saturday June 25
The president of the Basque mountain federation said a few years ago: ‘It’s not a difficult pass to cross but it is dangerous’
‘The alarm was raised around 8.30pm, saying the 25-year-old had gone missing near to the Alluitz mountain summit.
‘A police helicopter found his body in a place called the canal de Infernu Zubi, near to the Alluitz peak, where it appears he could have suffered a fall.’
The climber’s body has now been taken to the city of Bilbao for a post-mortem.
Several people have been killed on the Devil’s Pass – Paso del Diablo in Spanish – and the area around the Anboto summit which the British man was trying to reach.
In the decade between the years 2000 and 2010, one local newspaper put the number of deaths at 12 in an April 2010 report about the death of a 58-year-old man on the pass.
Reports at the time led to a debate about whether chains should be installed to help people cross it.
The president of the Basque mountain federation, speaking after a fatal accident there some years ago, said: ‘It’s not a difficult pass to cross but it is dangerous. It’s not for mountaineers who suffer from vertigo.’
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