Missing!

Since he was a boy, Sean Ireton has been an ardent hiker, climbing mountain trails all over the world. Even on family trips, it was typical for him to take a day by himself to knock off a tempting peak. In January last year, he and his wife, Megan, both German teachers at the University of Missouri in the US and on sabbatical in Düsseldorf, Germany, planned a two-week backpacking adventure in Spain

with their son, Aidan, 12. They took off in December 2009 and spent their days touring and hiking in the southern mountains, making time to sample the regional cuisine and enjoy the country’s robust red wines along the way. Sean, 45, was looking forward especially to a solo hike on El Mulhacén, a rocky knob in Spain’s Sierra Nevada and, at 3478m, the highest peak on the Spanish mainland. From Mulhacén on a clear day you could see all the way across the Mediterranean to Morocco.

When they got near Pradollano, a ski village near Mulhacén, the family pitched their tent in the woods. At this time of year, the mountain’s snowy trails were well packed and straightforward, requiring a hiker to travel at only a moderate clip to reach Mulhacén’s broad summit in about four hours. Early the next morning, Sean put on several layers of warm clothes and set out under a purple and golden sunrise.

Now it was dark, and Sean’s wife and son lay in their tent and worried. “When is Dad coming back?” Aidan asked Megan over and over. “Why isn’t he back yet?”

“He’ll be back soon, sweetie,” his mother reassured him. In the past her husband had returned late from excursions. But this was pushing it, so sometime after midnight, Megan got up and took Aidan into town to look for help. The ordinarily lively village was deserted, the motionless chairlifts hanging eerily in the dark. Megan didn’t speak Spanish, and a hotel clerk’s directions just sent them in circles. They’d have to wait till morning. “Aidan was so upset,” Megan recalls. “He sensed something was wrong. He had that child’s intuition.”