Search team locates body of shepherd on snow-covered mountain in Spain

On Saturday morning, Spain's Basque Country regional police (Ertzaintza) located the body of the 77-year-old shepherd who had been missing since last Thursday in the mountainous area of Urbia. Sources from the Basque department of security confirm that the man was found shortly before eleven o'clock in the morning in the area surrounding Mount Artzanburu, very close to the place where his dog was found dead the previous day.

On Friday afternoon, the helicopter deployed by the Ertzaintza's search and rescue unit (UVR) managed to spot the missing shepherd's flock of sheep and his dog in Urbia. Images released by the UVR showed the flock of sheep huddled together at considerable altitude, with snow covering the mountain. The rescue team then headed towards this area in search of the shepherd but, when night fell, they had to call off the search until the next morning.

It was around 8pm on Thursday when the man's family raised the alarm and officers from the mountain rescue team of the UVR and a mountain patrol from the Ertzaintza resumed the search on Friday morning at around 8.45am, following the previous night's search efforts. SUR confirmed via sources from the Basque government's emergency services that Friday's search was carried out in the areas of Oltza and Urbia, starting from the Arantzazu access point. Heavy snowfall prevented a helicopter from joining the search effort until well into the day.

Despite the cold and heavy snowfall in the area, friends and family of José Luis Uribetxeberria, known as 'Txantxangorri', remained hopeful that he would be found alive. "If anyone can survive alone in Urbia, it's him. He knows all the 'txokos' [hidey-holes] like no one else. And, like any good shepherd, he's incredibly tough." Such were the comments on Friday morning from a group of men sitting around a table at the Armuño social club in the Brinkola district of Legazpiarra, where the shepherd would often stop for a coffee on his way to Urbia or heading back home. With or without sheep, but always on foot.

He would probably would have done so again on Thursday, as he was last seen walking his flock of some 200 sheep down to his farmhouse, Irazola, in the municipality of Gabiria and on the border with Legazpiarra. He should have completed the walk past the Katabera mines and the Barrendiola reservoir to Brinkola, but he did not.

In both Gabiria and Brinkola, people commented on Txantxangorri's toughness. "He's your typical farming man who always wears short sleeves and, in winter, you'll see him in a raincoat, but never a heavy overcoat. Even at 77, he was in great physical shape. He walked the entire route from his farmhouse to Urbia." "The problem," they added, "is that there's no mobile phone service in that area. And his phone is an old-fashioned one, not a smartphone, so he cannot be located."

It might seem surprising that this shepherd rushed to bring his flock down from the mountain to spend the winter at lower altitudes, but those who knew him say that "he has always done it that way. He was always the last shepherd to come down from Urbia. Until the first snows arrived, he'd stay in his sheepfold", said those who knew him at the Armuño club. "When you saw him turn up in Brinkola with his sheep in tow, you knew that winter was upon us", commented one woman. Sometimes, "because he was in such a hurry", he'd leave some sheep behind that were unable to keep up and he'd go back to get them. "It's a tough call to make."

It also seems that the snowstorm did not take him by surprise. In fact, a man who was with him on the eve of his disappearance on the summit of Urbia said that he told Txantxangorri that "the weather was turning very bad. So, he knew it was going to snow heavily, but he always held out until the end."