British hikers who wanted to ‘go off-grid’ in Italy’s Dolomites missing since New Year’s Day
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A body has been found in the search for the two British hikers missing in Italy’s Dolomite mountains after being last heard from on New Year’s Day. Aziz Ziriat, 36, and Samuel Harris, 35, from London, last sent messages to their loved ones in the late afternoon of January 1 from the Trentino region.
Their last known location is thought to be a hut called Casina Dosson near Tione Di Trento town, which is close to Riva Del Garda on Lake Garda. Italy’s alpine rescue service said that a body was discovered ‘unfortunately lifeless, buried under the snow’ after a helicopter search resumed today in the area.
![[Samuel Harris]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235269690-f384.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=607)
Guided by the hikers’ phone recordings, crews found the men’s backpacks and equipment. They confirmed a search for the second mountaineer would continue and that the families of both men had been informed. Earlier efforts to find Aziz and Sam were hampered by snowfall, fog and avalanche warnings.
![[Search for two missing people in the Adamello group The Alpine Rescue ground teams, airlifted in the morning near the Conca pass at an altitude of about 2,600 meters above sea level to carry out searches by land through surveys in the snow, in the area identified as a priority thanks to a trace recorded by the phone of one of the two climbers, found one of the bodies, unfortunately lifeless, buried under the snow. The dynamics of the accident are being evaluated. The search continues on land to find the second climber, with the activation of the Alpine Rescue canine units, specialized in avalanche searches. Samuel Harris and Aziz Ziriat https://www.soccorsoalpinotrentino.it/news/]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235356206-9fdc.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The pair of ‘experienced hikers’ had travelled to the mountainous range to ‘go off-grid.’. An alarm was raised when the two did not board their Lufthansa flight back to London on Monday. Joe Stone, a university friend of Aziz, said: ‘They are experienced hikers and they go a couple of times a year. It wasn’t surprising that they had no signal as they like going off the grid.’.
![[They were possibly following the route shown in the image below.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GgsKoNxXIAAqchH-2348.png?w=532)
Rebecca Dimmock, Aziz’s girlfriend, and their friends rushed to Italy to help help co-ordinate the search with local authorities. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.
