His name was José Antonio Martín, and on December 29 his trail vanished. An adventurer and expert climber, he chose to chase one of his long‑held dreams: summiting El Calvitero in the Sierra de Béjar, a ridge that links Cáceres and Salamanca. The peak rises to about 2,400 meters, offering a dreamlike panorama. The Catalan mountaineer had planned this ascent for years, and the moment had finally arrived.
“I’m starting the route, everything is fine,” he told his partner Merche at 9:11 a.m. He did not write messages or leave audio notes after that. Later that day, at 3:40 p.m., his phone rang once, then silence. He was never seen again.
That night the winds picked up, growing intermittent and stubborn, and storms closed in as the week wore on. More than a month passed before the search was resumed on a Saturday, with ice and snow complicating every effort.
Valeriano Calle, head of the Rescue Unit UCAS De Arrate, a professional association that specializes in locating missing persons, spoke to the Iberian Press Events and Investigation portal with a measured tone: we will search for José. The weather has changed; if conditions improve, the chances rise. The teams in position can work.
The UCAS base camp was slated to be established on the second platform of Torreón, near the Sierra de Candelario ski area, La Covatilla, Béjar. It is the very place where José had left his car on the day he disappeared.
One dog tested positive
“We will conduct a special search over the weekend,” said the rescue unit chief. “This means we are not recruiting volunteers this time.” The UCAS team pairs humans and dogs. Ten detector dogs trained in locating people will descend onto the Sierra de Béjar, arranged in teams of two. There is no fixed schedule; the team will remain on the mountainside daily as long as needed.
The rocky, intricately carved terrain with many nooks has already been explored. “Earlier this year we climbed higher and those crevices were covered by snow. We want to return and check them again, because a dog previously traced a signal there.” The search region centers on the lower slopes of El Calvitero, around 1,900 meters, where another dog had registered a positive signal in a prior operation. The weather had halted the last attempt. “The dog’s positive signals align closely with where we are looking now. Everything moves in line, so we proceed carefully and systematically to avoid missing anything. It is very possible that the point marked by the dog leads to José.”
“Something happened”
Born in Catalonia, José used the Christmas holidays to travel to Ceclavín in Cáceres, joining his partner Merche as he often did. He was close to a day off between family gatherings and had planned the ascent: “I’m leaving tomorrow.”
Equipped with front‑line gear, ice axes, and crampons, he carried warm clothing, snow pants, and a bright red North Face jacket. A charger for the phone and the car’s power supply traveled with him. José laid out everything the night before and told Merche not to worry; he mentioned a group of hikers who had planned to go up with him. Active Tourism, which was “going up,” would accompany him. José moved with confident, practiced steps, checking each item one by one. Then he began the ascent.
The Béjar Civil Guards found the car on Torreón’s second platform, exactly where José had shown his partner hours earlier.
“The phone was ringing again and again, a mechanical, repetitive sound,” Merche shared with the media a month later. “I remember my daughter Carla trying to comfort me, saying the battery must be dead and that the charger would bring him back to the car. We gave him a little time, but it was not enough. The calm broke.” She sought help from the Turismo Activa group, but they had not gone, and the call to 112 came quickly after that.
The Béjar Civil Guards located the car on Torreón’s second platform, the exact place José had indicated earlier. Winds gathered strength, fog rolled in, and rain began to fall. Special Rescue Group for Mountain Response joined the effort that night, and the search continued, though it became intermittent in the following days as wind and snow slowed progress. The last official call to José came on January 16, and the search was suspended thereafter, with little hope left to cling to.
Communication with GREIM
Merche endured month after month of waiting, grateful for the support from UCAS, QSDglobal, climbers, and fellow volunteers who never wavered. Although José did not survive the ordeal, his family remained connected with the rescuers, thankful for every sign of effort and every lead. In ongoing dialogue with GREIM, the captain explained that if this weekend yielded no results, the mountain would be divided into sectors and volunteers would be called again to monitor the Sierra in future missions. The aim was to widen the search radius and leave no corner unchecked.
José Antonio, the porter who earned the affection of patients, was the sort of meticulous, methodical person who kept pushing forward. He had decided to become a nurse’s assistant, a role that perfectly fit his habit of planning ahead and embracing new challenges. Calvitero was just one of many projects on his life’s list. After New Year’s, he and Merche had planned a trip to Madrid to return home with charged batteries for Les Franqueses del Vallès, where they were to begin organizing one of their most significant plans together: marriage.
Three months after that fateful December 29, Merche continues to persevere. She watches the weather and the ice melt day by day, keeping her eyes on the horizon. The moment of news might come, she admits, and she fears what that news could mean. Hope is a fragile thread, and the path ahead feels unsettled yet once again. Still, she presses on, driven by love, memory, and resolve, staying connected to the people who stand with her in this long, quiet vigil.