Police give major update after woman falls 500ft to her death from rock climbing hotspot
The woman died after falling from the deteriorating Caminito del Rey pathway in Malaga, southern Spain, with her companion surviving but “in shock” when he was found.
Police have issued a key update following the shock death of a woman who plunged 500 feet from a popular rock climbing spot in Spain.
The woman, 21, died when she lost her footing on the famous Caminito del Rey pathway in Malaga, with her body having been discovered by emergency services after the alarm was raised just after 7pm on Saturday. A male friend she was hiking with miraculously cheated death by grabbing onto a bush-covered rock that was jutting out from the rest after he fell.
He was said to have been in a state of shock when he was rescued alive. Yesterday evening’s drama occurred near to the village of El Chorro close to the famous Caminito del Rey pathway. The spot the climbers were in is called the Swiss Sector next to a hiking area called the Arabic Staircase. Police have now cleared up initial confusion following the incident.
Spain’s Civil Guard, the police force investigating the incident, confirmed she was an Irish national, clearing up earlier local reports suggesting she may have been British. A spokesman for the force in Malaga said: “I can confirm the woman who died was an Irish 21-year-old.”
The woman’s companion, while having survived, was said to have been in a state of shock when he was rescued. The unnamed mountaineers are understood to have spent the day practicing sport and are thought to have suffered their accident as they made their descent after taking the wrong route by mistake.
The survivor has told police they lost their balance and went over the side of a ravine. Last month a British climber died in the same area. The earlier tragedy occurred on December 11 when a man aged around 20 fell and hurt himself in an area known as Puente del Mono which translates into English as Monkey Bridge close to the village of El Chorro.
He was knocked unconscious and had gone into cardiac arrest by the time the first emergency responders arrived. The Brit, who was not named, was pronounced dead after the chopper rescue. The area where that tragedy occurred is also close to the Caminito del Rey path, which has once known as the most dangerous walk in the world.
The path had earlier fallen into disuse before it was reopened following a restoration. The dead man is understood to have been crossing a protected climbing route called a via ferrata where a metal rail is bolted into the mountain that users can clip into and use as a safety line
