The British family of a teenager who went missing last year while hiking in the Romanian mountains said they now had to accept he was lost to them.
University of Bristol student George Smyth, from Shropshire, west England, has been missing in the Bucegi Mountains since 23 November, according to Brașov mountain rescue.
Smyth’s family have now issued a statement via the rugby club he played for, detailing their “immense grief and sadness that we can no longer see him, speak to him or hold him in our arms”, the BBC reported.
It is “cruel beyond belief” they said.
“When the mountains that took him are ready to let go, George will be found, and we will bring him home to say goodbye,” they said.
Smyth set off from Poiana Braşov, later contacting rescuers. His family said he had not told them he was making the trip.
Sebastian Marinescu, from the area’s mountain rescue service, told the BBC the 18-year-old “was disoriented, physically exhausted, and already showing signs of hypothermia” when they received the emergency call.
Marinescu described Smyth’s location as in a “very isolated and hard-to-access mountain area” and the weather conditions “were extremely severe with strong winds, heavy snowfall, and dense fog”.
The search for Smyth was repeatedly hampered by adverse weather conditions including the risk of avalanche.
Speaking earlier, Marinescu said search operations had been temporarily suspended again because of the “high and persistent avalanche risk in the area”, and high snow.
Salvamont Brașov
