There were still around ten gendarmes, including a drone remote pilot, surveying the area this Friday, September 27. Without, unfortunately, managing to find Kirk Handley, an English national who left to bivouac on September 7, towards the pass and the peak of Arsine, between Villar-d’Arène and Le Monêtier-les-Bains.
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The man, aged 60, was normally due to return on September 10, but has not been heard from since. According to the AFP in a dispatch published on September 24 and reporting a clarification from the Gap prosecutor’s office, his family in England had declared his disappearance on September 13.
His car and traces of his bivouac found
But it was the alert of a witness, on Sunday September 22, noting that a rental vehicle had been parked without moving for almost 15 days in Villar-d’Arène, which triggered the investigations by the gendarmerie platoon of high mountain (PGHM) of Briançon. In the vehicle, a note was found specifying the day of departure and return of the hiker, as well as an itinerary. This indicating that Kirk Handley was going to the Arsine Pass and Peak area.
Monday September 23, an investigation into a worrying disappearance was opened by the Gap public prosecutor’s office and referred to the PGHM. After aerial searches on Sunday, pedestrian investigations the next day made it possible to find “clues that could indicate its presence in the area”, confided to the Dauphiné Libéré the second in command of the Briançonnais PGHM unit, Lieutenant Nicolas Chaon. Traces, probably, of his bivouac.
A call for witnesses launched
The day after this discovery, the PGHM of Briançon launched a call for witnesses. Without success, just like the searches undertaken the rest of the week – the latter being difficult due to the weather conditions.
“We hope to be able to do aerial reconnaissance again at the beginning of next week,” explains Lieutenant Chaon, this Friday, September 27. Still in this same identified sector of the pass and the peak of Arsine where the snow should have melted. »
