Costa Almeria pensioner trapped in snow in Calar Alto

GUARDIA Civil had to go to the rescue of a 75-year motorist who walked for 20 kilometres in freezing temperatures after his vehicle got stuck on a forest road covered in snow and ice in Calar Alto.
It was the pensioner’s son who alerted the Guardia that his father had disappeared between Calar Alto and Bacares. He reported that his dad did not have a mobile phone with him, but that a passing hiker had got in touch to let him know the vehicle was trapped in an area known as Paraje Venta Luisa.
They said they had lent the elderly driver their mobile so he could call a tow truck.
Guardia officers set about combing the area to try and locate the 75-year old. It proved heavy going, given that the amount of accumulated snow and ice had made pretty much made all roads impassable.
The conditions made the officers extremely doubtful a tow truck would have been able to get through, and the hypothesis the pensioner would have set off on foot to try and get help.
It took the Guardia two hours to find the car, which was completely stuck in the snow. A short time later they finally came across the motorists, by this time in quite a state and with symptoms of hypothermia having tramped for miles in the icy conditions.
They wrapped him up in their own coats to warm him up, before taking him to where the point where the hunt for him began, and where there were family members waiting for him.