A British woman has died after falling from a mountain while hiking with her partner in northern Spain.
The 42-year-old was killed in front of her partner after falling around over 500 metres on the slopes of a famous Pyrenees mountain called the Balaitus Peak near the Spanish-French border.
She was crossing an area called the Great Diagonal, one of the most popular and accessible climbing routes to its 3,144 metre peak when she fell to her death on Saturday evening. The woman’s 53-year-old partner, who was present at the scene, was unharmed in the incident.
Police sources confirmed today the dead woman was British and was born in the UK but lived in Finland like the man she was with, whose nationality has not been made public. The alarm was raised around 7.20pm on Saturday.
View 3 ImagesThe unnamed woman fell over 500 metres to her death(Image: Getty Images)
A spokesman for the Civil Guard said: “An investigation is ongoing and a report drafted by officers will be sent to a local investigating court along with the post-mortem results. At this stage the woman’s death is being treated as a tragic accident resulting from a fall.”
Mountain search and rescue experts from a specialist Civil Guard unit were mobilised to the area, along with a helicopter which was dispatched to take the British woman’s body to a nearby heliport after it was recovered.
The victim was then taken to Zaragoza’s Forensic Medicine Institute for the post-mortem. It was immediately clear today if the autopsy has already taken place.
One well-placed source said weather conditions in the area where the Brit fell had been good on Saturday but she was believed to have slipped in a snow-covered area as she descended the mountain.
View 3 ImagesThe woman’s partner was by her side when she made the fatal fall(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The Balaitus Peak is a granite mass located right on the border between Spain and France, separating the Spanish Tena Valley from the French Val d’Azun. It marks the starting point of the High Pyrenees and has seven different ridges.
Last month a 61-year-old British hiker was found dead after going missing in Spain in bad weather conditions.
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The 61-year-old told emergency responders he was “lost and exhausted” when he made his last call around 7pm on May 14. He had travelled to the famous Picos de Europa mountain range in northern Spain, which are situated in the autonomous communities of Asturias, Cantabria and Castile and Leon.
A helicopter was mobilised as part of a land and air search before his body was discovered on May 16.