Climber, 28, didn’t make a sound as he fell to death in front of wife

Emma Heritage watched as her husband Daniel rolled off the cliff and fell to his death, one ledge at a time.

It was the end of the Australians’ first summer in Canada, and the moderate-risk Mother’s Day Buttress in Banff National Park was highlight recommended.

The couple, both experienced climbers aged 28, thought it might be their last climb of the year, but neither knew it would be their last ever together.

Emma, who met her husband when they were both 18, remembers Daniel’s last words after losing sight of him as they climbed.

‘Phew, that was a little harder than I expected’, he said, concealed by the edge of a steep corner crack.

She waited for the all-clear to continue her ascent. Some 15 minutes passed as she looked out on the forests, cliffs and peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Then the rope slackened and, without a sound, Daniel fell.

Emma told Climbing.com: ‘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.

‘As soon as Daniel landed I knew there wasn’t much I could do.’

She later told The Advertiser: ‘He didn’t yell or make any noise. There was a lot of bleeding from his mouth, he very quickly lost consciousness and he wasn’t responsive.’

His helmet couldn’t save his head from the severe injuries that 20-metre fall inflicted, so Emma cradled him as she waited 90 minutes for a rescue team to arrive.

But instead of relief, their arrival brought the hardest moment of Emma’s life.

She was their priority for evacuation by helicopter. She said: ‘I knew when the rescuers first directed the plan to get me down before Daniel.

‘I think that was probably one of the most heartbreaking moments for me because I had to step away from him.’

In following weeks, Emma learnt an important fact about a loved one’s death – bureaucracy does not wait for grief.

A coroner needed to rule out foul play, then the funeral home needed a deposit £6,000, plus £4,000 to fly Daniel’s body back to Adelaide, and another £8,000 for the funeral.

Their insurance wouldn’t cover it, so they turned to family and friends for support. Daniel’s mother paid the funeral home, and another £22,000 came through GoFundMe.

‘I was pretty keen to get Daniel back home to his family’, Emma said, ‘but it was funny, I had this conflict, leaving Canada was farewelling this adventure and my most recent memories, they were such fresh memories, it felt like I was leaving him behind.’

That was in 2022, soon after Daniel died on October 5.

Emma has since returned to Canada, to the site where she last heard his voice.

Just a few months after he died, Emma wrote in a tribute on Climbing.com: ‘Maybe there was loose rock. Maybe he simply slipped.

‘As is so often the case on easier terrain, he had not placed any protection after the corner crack.’

But returning to the scene turned up no answers.

Emma recently told the Advertiser: ‘I re-climbed the place where it happened.

‘I thought it would be really emotional and I would be a puddle of tears but it was actually when I climbed above where he fell that it was frustration that I felt.

‘I couldn’t see why he fell and I couldn’t understand how I could be OK and he wasn’t.

‘I’m never going to know… I guess I’ll have to just come to terms with that and just continue to miss him.’

She said: ‘I am forever grateful for knowing Daniel and know my life is still better for having known him.’

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