German hiker missing in Ifonche area

[Michael]

That last guy who got lost in the mountains behind us was a 70-something German.  I think Perikles is right.

73 and setting out alone is reckless.

Bit of a generalisation though isn't it?

I mean, i've seen guys in their seventies that could give guys in their thirties a run for their money.

I know a WW2 vet who, not that long ago, was playing tennis three times a week.

Just saying. 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

I take your point and if I live so long plan to be just as active as I am now at 70.  However, it is a well known tenet of hiking that you do not set off by yourself, especially in an area with which you are unfamiliar.  I still say these guys are being reckless.  I would say the same if they were in their fifties or thirties. 

[Janet]

Yes, it's reckless ...

Perikles went for a walk over to Las Fuentes not too long ago, a marked route and one he's familiar with. Clouds came up and he ended in a mini-barranco ... and before he knew it he was stumped as to which way to turn. It's all too easy, and that was an experienced walker in a known route virtually on our doorstep.

[Perikles]

Germans are used to having millions of kilometres of well-maintained hiking routes all set out nicely with clear signs everywhere, almost impossible to get lost. The one I got lost on was a route from Vera to a well-known derelict finca only about 10 kms away, and the route had been cleared and spelled out on a hiking map in the village. About as safe as it gets. I started out from the village on the blindingly obvious pathway up the mountain which after about 4 kilometres had been completely demolished by some recent rain. Because I knew roughly where I was going, I guessed the direction and got it wrong. Within half an hour I finished up in the bottom of an impenetrable barranco with undergrowth so bad I couldn't even see where I had come from. Oddly, going down was more difficult than going up, so I eventually climbed up a very steep and unstable bank and found a path by accident. Of course, I had my mobile with me, but of course there was no coverage, not even when once out in the open again.

I think I've said it before somewhere, but they get grants to build these routes, and with no maintenance grant the routes disintegrate within a year or two making them actually more dangerous than if they hadn't done it in the first place.

[Janet]

Perikles has hit the nail on the head ... I'm sure he didn't mean to ...

IT WAS THE SAME MAN!!!!!

[Michael]

Oh FFS! That being the case, I hope he's got deep pockets. 

[Nova]

 

[Perikles]

Does anybody listen to me? Ever? [attachimg=1]

[Nova]

As rarely as possible 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

As rarely as possible 

Did someone say something Nova?  Just wondering what you were responding to.