Hiker stresses the golden rule: never go walking alone

The tragic death of retired British police officer Peter Smiddy while hiking in Majorca last week has saddened the hiking community but has also sparked calls for a greater level of awareness and guideance about the dangers involved. Peter Smiddy was last seen on Monday April 2 and his body was found by a police helicopter rescue team on Monday evening. While the results of the autopsy have yet to be revealed, it appears that the 67-year-old had been dead for a number of days and had suffered a blow to the head after falling down a ten metre gully as night fell. Yesterday Norman Eatough, an experienced hiker who lives in Geneva and has hiked all over the Alps, but regularly visits Majorca to go hiking and lead special hiking groups, said that he was “horrified” by Smiddy's sad death. “The first law when hiking is to never go alone, it's the golden rule,” he said stressing the need for people to be made aware of this fact. Eatough said that it is all very well taking a mobile phone “but in most of the mountain areas of Majorca, mobiles do not work, there is no coverage.” He added that a mobile phone is not a reliable piece of equipment to be carrying when hiking and that the best way of being safe it quite simply not to hike alone. The body of Peter Smiddy was found on the Son March estate near Pollensa, a number of kilometres away from the search zone which had been combed by rescue teams throughout last week. Peter Smiddy's son, Andrew arrived on the island last Saturday to try and keep up the momentum in the search.