Rescue crews found the body of a British hiker buried in the snow of the Italian alps and were continuing to search for his friend who had also been missing since Jan. 1, Italy's rescue services said Wednesday.
Italy’s Alpine rescue service said it only received an alert about the men on Jan. 6, five days after the men set out in the Adamello range near Trento, after they failed to make a scheduled flight home and relatives contacted authorities.
After the first two days of searches were hampered by snowfall, fog and avalanche warnings, rescue crews managed to get a helicopter in the air Wednesday and ground crews reached the pair's last recorded location.
Guided by the hikers' phone recordings, crews found the men's backpacks and equipment, as well as the body of one of the hikers buried in the snow, the rescuers said in a statement.
British media quoted relatives and partners of the two men, Aziz Ziriat, 36, and Sam Harris, 35, as saying they were experienced hikers who had planned a New Year’s Day excursion, hiking from mountain hut to mountain hut.
“It wasn’t surprising that they had no signal as they like going off the grid,” said a university friend of Ziriat, Joe Stone.
A helicopter attempted a flyover on Tuesday, but fog and poor visibility forced it to return before reaching the affected valley and the search was suspended, the rescue crews said. Additionally, ground crews of the fire rescue service were unable to work due to high risks of avalanches.
The Adamello range straddles Italy's Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige regions and includes the highest peak, Mt. Adamello, at 3,539 meters (11,611 feet.)
