British mountaineer, 61, dies in Spanish national park

MADRID: Spanish emergency services on Saturday recovered the body of a missing British mountaineer whose appeal for rescue from a freezing high-altitude route went in vain due to fierce blizzards.

The 61-year-old man called late on Thursday saying he was “disorientated, tired and carrying little equipment” as he returned from a trek in the Picos de Europa national park, the Castile and Leon region’s emergency services said in a statement.

But “especially adverse” weather conditions, including sub-zero temperatures and “snow of a considerable intensity”, hampered a search effort that mobilised specialised mountain rescuers and helicopters, added the northwestern region’s emergency services.

Improved weather conditions on Saturday allowed the team to scour the area and find the mountaineer’s body in the Moeno pass, surrounded by craggy peaks that rise above 2,500 metres (8,200 feet).