A Guardia Civil mountain team was called out to rescue two mountaineers who had got stuck on the Los Tajos rock face in the municipality of Vélez de Benaudalla.

The man and woman, both aged 25, had got stuck ascending the vía ferrata last night, which is a kind of iron-rung route up the sheer rock face of this very popular climbing area.

The emergency call centre informed the Guardia Civil Mountain Rescue unit in Granada around 20.15h to say that two climbers had become stuck half way up this vertigo-inspiring rock face.

One of the two had lost his or her nerves and had become paralysed with fear. With the night already upon them, it looked like they weren’t going anywhere soon.

Two specialists from the Grupo de Montaña de La Comandancia were despatched to the scene and made their way up to where the two climbers had come to a halt. Checking both of the victims out, they assured them that the way out was to continue up.

Once over the top they found a narrow footpath and all four made their way down to where the climbers had left their car. It was all over by 01.50h

Editorial comment: I’m not surprised one of them froze – you wouldn’t get me up there not for a million euros… just saying, just in case a reader has 1,000,001 euros to spare!

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