A woman whose husband died in a horrifying climbing accident has recalled his heartbreaking final words before he plunged to his death.
Australian national Daniel Heritage, 28, died as the couple attempted to climb the Cascade Mountain in the Canadian Rockies last October.
His wife, Emma, was forced to watch helplessly as Daniel fell down a series of ledges before tragically dying in her arms.
Daniel had been ahead of Emma during the climb of Mother’s Day Buttress — a route consisting of eight steep pitches.
It was as they were making their way up the fifth pitch that the terrain became more difficult to navigate.
Paying tribute to her late husband, Emma recalled how as Daniel reached the top of a steep corner crack he said to said: “Phew, that was a little harder than I expected.”
After this, he went out of Emma's sight and she waited for him to call out "safe" after reaching the next anchor, but sadly after waiting 10 to 15 minutes no call came.
Describing the horrifying moment she watched Daniel fall, Emma said: "Without any sound, I watched a large amount of rope drop back towards my end of the system. I remember calling out 'Hey, what’s going on up there?'
"My stomach dropped as I saw Daniel rolling on his back, at great speed towards the edge that I had last seen him. His body continued to roll and took flight off the edge of the steep corner.
"He continued to fall, tumbling down a series of ledges to where I was stationed at the anchor."
Emma said that Daniel had not placed any protection after he'd reached the steep corner crack because the terrain had gotten easier.
But she was unsure what caused his fall, adding: "Maybe there was a loose rock. Maybe he simply slipped."
Daniel sustained severe head injuries from the fall and once he'd landed Emma sadly knew there wasn't much she could do.
She called the emergency services within 30 seconds of his fall but was then left to cradle Daniel as he died.
She said: "All I could do was support his head in my lap and express just how much I love him and how, that if today was his time to part from this world, that God would be with him and accept him with open arms."
Moments later Emma watched Daniel's eyes "glaze over" as he passed away while watching "the mountains that he knew and loved."
The rescue teamed arrived within 90 minutes and focused their efforts on getting Emma off the mountain as she was "forced to realize the unthinkable".
She described having to leave Daniel's side as the "hardest thing I have ever gone through".
Adding: "It was like having my heart ripped right out of my chest"
Emma and Daniel had recently celebrated their four-year wedding anniversary before the accident and had been hiking, camping and climbing across Canada’s Rockies since March 2022.
Despite her devastating loss, Emma said she is "forever grateful" to have known Daniel and that her life is still better because of the time she had with him.
