A group of Spanish mountaineers stumbled upon a body that could be one of the two Catalan climbers who have been missing since December near the Rulhe peak in the Ariege region, on the French side of the central Pyrenees. "The thaw made it visible," one of the group members who found the partially buried body on Sunday, June 1st, reported to the local French newspaper, La Dépêche du Midi.

Emergency services are continuing their efforts to find what might be the second body of the missing Catalan climbers. The weather conditions are challenging, as the Ariege Prefecture issued a yellow storm alert on the same Sunday.

In fact, the families and friends of the pair had recently announced their plans to resume the search for the bodies, taking advantage of the thaw.

Txell Fusté, a 52-year-old woman from Manresa (Bages), and Esteve Carbonell, a 47-year-old from Gironella (Berguedà), disappeared on December 7th while attempting to climb the Rulhe Peak (2,800m) in the French Pyrenees. A fierce northerly blizzard, known locally as torb, thwarted their return and made locating them impossible.