The woman who fell to her death whilst climbing the Tajos de Vados was 49-years old and had reached the summit when she fell 280 metres to her death.

The reason that the police believe that she had reached the top was that she had already clipped her helmet to her backpack and was probably standing next to the edge at the top of the metal-rung climbing route; there is a series of metal rungs sticking out of the cliff face, from the bottom to the top.

The Guardia Civil, mountain-rescue team checked out this route the same evening of the accident (Christmas Day), looking for defects, using head-mounted torches to inspect them – they found none. Another reason for inspecting the whole route was that it was possible that another person was trapped up there; it is frequent that one climber witnesses a companion falling to his death, they enter into shock and are unable to proceed.

It also appears that the woman made the ascent by herself, whereas it is recommended that you do it with others, with a minimum of two climbers. The reason being is that the first person proceeds threading in the safety rope and the last one’s job is to unhitch it.

Via ferratas: a series of metal rungs or stemples inserted into a rock face to aid inexperience climbers.

K-Carabiners: an anchoring device, specially designed for via ferratas, they have larger-than-normal openings than standard carabiners. The device has a spring locking mechanism that can be opened with one hand. These specialised carabiners are marked with the letter ‘K,’ standing for Klettersteig; i.e., the German term for via ferratas.

(News: Velez Benaudalla, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)