Fears grow for hiker missing in Spain (From York Press)

Fears grow for hiker Gordon Simm who is missing in Spain

10:23am Friday 27th July 2012 in News

CONCERNS are growing for a North Yorkshire father-of-two who has vanished while hiking in Spain.

Award-winning photographer and author Gordon Simm, 63, disappeared after setting out for a trek along the Rio Chillar near the Costa del Sol on Saturday.

The experienced mountaineer and hiker was holidaying with wife Wendy, having visiting the resort of Nerja, east of Malaga, regularly for seven years.

Mr Simm, of Kiln Cottage, Kirk Forge, Kirkbymoorside, set out saying he would he would be back by noon on Sunday. He took a taxi to the Nerja Caves and from there went by mountain bike to the river.

Mr Simm, who has two children and four grandchildren, took a day and a half’s supply of food, with lots of bread, fruit and cereal, and a small amount of water, intending to fill his bottle from the river.

The semi-retired engineer was apparently heading to the Cortijo del Imán and then La Cadena. His wife said he knew the routes and trails but she raised the alarm when he failed to return on Sunday evening.

Search teams, with aerial support, have failed to locate Mr Simm despite covering a wide area of the upper reaches of the Rio Chillar as far as the border with Granada.

Mr Simm has had images published in various walking publications. In 2011 he won the title Photographer Of The Year in a Panasonic Lumix competition.

Hadrian’s Wall Path was his first book as co-author and principal photographer, and Cleveland Way his second.