Why the search for missing teenager is going so slowly

As Spanish police begin a major operation to find Jay Slater, Holly Evans in Tenerife says they're hampered by the terrain

Located in a steep valley in the beautiful Rural de Teno park, the remote village of Masca is a heaven for hikers and adventurers travelling to Tenerife.

Yet for the family and friends of Jay Slater, it has become the place of nightmares because its rugged landscape and steep ravines easily hide clues which could shed light on the teenager’s disappearance.

Having seen the search first-hand, it is understandable how such little progress has been made in 13 days. The young Briton’s phone was last located near a stretch of road by the Mirador La Cruz de Hilda cafe, with cacti and dense shrubbery on either side, making it slow work for helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs to comb through the area.

Why the apprentice bricklayer had travelled such a distance is another mystery that has baffled investigators and volunteers involved in the search. After enjoying himself at the New Rave Generation festival in the tourist area of Playa de Las Americas on 16 June, Mr Slater went with two older British men to their Airbnb during the early hours of the morning.

A Snapchat image sent at 7.30am shows him having a cigarette outside their apartment before he called his friend Lucy Law at around 8.50am to say that he was lost, dehydrated and on one per cent phone battery. Just over half an hour later, his phone died, and mountain rescue teams have focused their search on the area where it was last registered.

By the time I reach the site, the search teams have shrunk in size, with only a handful of Guardia Civil police officers and a sniffer dog combing the area. The ravine closest to the road has been examined in depth, and they soon move over to the valley near Los Giralles, an hour and a half walk away from the terracota-tiled Airbnb.