The family of an experienced British hiker who went missing six weeks ago said they are hoping for a “crazy survival story”.
Aidan Roche, 29, went missing six weeks ago, as he was last heard from on June 22 while he was on a Swiss mountain.
The offshore chemical engineer from Middlesbrough was on the Eiger, a 13,015-foot-tall mountain in the Grindelwald area located approximately 50 miles away from Bern, Switzerland’s capital.
Police and mountain rescue teams have deployed drones and helicopters to search for the trekker, who was 12 days into a two-week camping trip when he disappeared.
Mr Roche’s brothers Connor, 32, and Niall, 31, have walked the same trail he was last seen on.
The concerned family have now released the last video of Mr Roche, hoping it will help identify the people who were around him before his disappearance.
A family friend has also launched a fundraiser via the GoFundMe platform to help the Roches pay for the helicopter search and fund an advertising campaign with electronic missing posters that could help generate new leads for the local Swiss authorities, which have for the time being exhausted every option they can and have stopped searching.
Connor said the hardest thing for his family right now is dealing with “the unknown”.
He added: “We’re all missing Aidan so much — we just need him to come home.”
Connor continued: “You can’t help but imagine the worst of things sometimes — especially with it being this long since he went missing. Right now we just need more information — anything that can help us find him and bring him home.”
Mr Roche, his eldest brother said, wouldn’t just “go off somewhere” as he had the habit of letting his loved ones know whenever he was venturing into somewhere remote.
He continued: “This just doesn’t make sense to anyone who knows him. He wouldn’t leave his van. It was so precious to him, and there was cash left in it: he’d only taken enough for the day.
“I try and keep up hope that maybe he’s decided to wander off, or he’s hit his head and forgotten who he is, but I have to drag myself back to what we actually know and the evidence suggests that he’s still on the mountain and we haven’t found him yet.
“There’s the outside chance that he has some crazy survival story.”
On the day he went missing, Mr Roche is believed to have taken the Eiger Express cable car from near his campsite to the Eiger glacier before walking northeast down the trail.
Mr Roche’s parents, Carole and Tony, said, after thanking the Swiss police and mountain rescue for the “amazing job” done so far: “We all just need to know what has happened to him.
“He’d never just disappear like this. There isn’t a day that goes by normally without him making contact with friends and family — sharing pictures or videos.”
