The search for missing Durham hiker Esther Dingley was abandoned on Saturday due to blizzards in the Pyrenees.
It is feared the 37-year-old, who has been missing since November 22, may have fallen.
If she landed in a crevasse, she would be covered by snow with little prospect of being found until the spring.
French police chief Laurent Gerin, covering Bagnères-de-Luchon, told The Mirror : “Snow has fallen since she has disappeared. It is very bad for the search.
“We hope she went off her planned route, and that she comes back to her car with a big smile on her face.”
Esther, from Durham, was reported missing by boyfriend Dan Colegate, 38, on November 25. He told the Mirror he was grateful for messages of support from home, but said: “I prefer to let the police manage what information is in the public domain.”
Esther’s aunt Elizabeth Wolsey Morgan said. “Her father Henry is broken. He’s in pieces.”
Ms Morgan has told of growing fears that her niece has been kidnapped.
At 3pm on the day Dan last heard from Esther, Marti Vigo del Arco, a Spanish Olympic skier, was hiking down a trail when he met an English woman heading up the Pic de Sauvegarde, on the French border with Spain.
Marti, 22, told Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper: “She asked us if we had a piece of fruit or something fresh, but we didn’t have anything. She carried on up.”
At around 4pm that day, Esther sent Dan a selfie from the 8,983ft summit.
Police have put up missing posters and want to trace a hiker who gave Esther a lift three days before she vanished.
