Jorge Garcia Dihinx and three companions practiced mountain skiing when a huge avalanche swallows them up. In just a few minutes, a avalanche large size, 300 meters wide and 600 meters longended with two men and a woman, great connoisseurs of the mountains and, more precisely, of the Pyrenees of Huesca, who ended up swallowing them and without the open sea rescue device could do anything to save his life.
It was around 1:00 p.m. when this enormous avalanche surprised them during an excursion to Tablato peak, at 2,300 meters above sea level, near the Spa Panticosa. It was “very snowy” terrain, in “completely winter” conditions in the high mountains of Huesca, as explained by Lieutenant Baín Rodríguez, responsible for the operation.
At that moment, the avalanche risk He was not high, knowing that in the mountains, “zero risk” “never exists”. However, in recent days there have been some snowfall which accumulated significant quantities of snow, which transformed until generating this enormous deadly avalanche.
In fact, the avalanche was of such magnitude that in the low areas Up to 12 meters of snow accumulated.
Almost without being able to react, the avalanche trapped four people. A “stroke of bad luck“, lamented the President of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, who mourned the Aragonese mountain. “They were much loved people of the valley and expert mountaineers and meteorologists. It’s bad luck. Even as a professional mountain and meteorology expert, you can suffer a stroke of bad luck,” he admitted as he approached the Panticosa heliport, from where the operation was deployed.
“All of them were mountain experts, because enter such a high areabecause no one can take this course. This particular group was expertsbut it must be taken into account that, if there is snow, the zero risk This does not exist,” Lieutenant Baín Rodríguez also insisted.
Rescuing the bodies was not easy. In total, they participated up to 14 Greim specialists and from different points in the province of Huesca, from Jaca to the station staff. Formigal, Astún or Candanchú.
The first to arrive were the members of another group of climberswho managed to save three of the four trapped people, while the fourth has already been freed lifeless by Greim specialists.
The operation arrived within minutes of receiving the notice, but terrain conditions made the entire operation difficult. Because there wasn’t any, they didn’t even have coverage in the rescue helicopters of the Civil Guard, which could also delay the alarm.
The first arrivals, as is usual in this type of rescue, were the assessment teams to understand the situation in detail and then mobilize the entire team. specialized operation mountain on different flights.
However, nothing could be done to save the lives of three of the four people trapped in the avalanche. All were great experts in this type of activities and meteorology, and they had practically devoted their lives to the mountains.
“In a situation like this, the chance of survival drops by 90% in 15 minutes. We don’t arrive within those 15 minutes, so the first action is self-help from the group itselfas it was, so that they could save three peoplewith the bad luck of not being able to do anything for two of them,” said Lieutenant Rodríguez.
Jorge García Dihinx was much more than an expert, but a reference for more than 370,000 people who followed him on social networks. Passionate about the Pyrenees, skier and mountaineer, he also shared his knowledge and enthusiasm through a personal blog in which he talked about mountain meteorology: ‘The time to come‘.
With him, his partner, Natalia, 36 years old and originally from Zaragoza, and a friend from Irun (Guipuzkoa) lost their lives. Another companion survived, a 29-year-old girl from Ordizia (Guipuzcoa), slightly injured and taken by ambulance to the San Jorge hospital in Huesca.
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