A young Australian widow has shared the heart-stopping moment she watched her husband fall off a cliff during a freak rock climbing accident in Canada.
Emma Heritage watched from just metres away as her husband Daniel, 28, lost his footing and slipped off a mountain in the Banff National Park on October 5, 2022.
The Adelaide couple had embarked on the trip of a lifetime when Daniel fell during a rock climbing expedition in the Canadian Rookies.
Ms Heritage said she felt the rope that connected them suddenly slacken which prompted her to turn around and see Daniel fall.
‘He landed near where I was, it just happened, he didn’t yell or make any noise,’ the devastated widow told The Advertiser.
Ms Heritage said there was a ‘lot’ of blood coming from Daniel’s mouth and that he very quickly lost consciousness after the fall.
She was able to call emergency services from where she was standing and stayed with her husband until paramedics arrived.
Ms Heritage said she knew Daniel was dead when first responders said they planned on getting her down from the mountain before him.
Adelaide woman Emma Heritage (left) has detailed for the first time the horror moment her husband Daniel (right) fell while rock climbing in the Canadian Rookies
Ms Heritage witnessed the horror moment Daniel (pictured) slipped and fell off a cliff
‘I think that was probably one of the most heartbreaking moments for me because I had to step away from him,’ she said.
Ms Heritage was made to relive the trauma in the days following the accident as the Coroner relied on her account as the only witness.
The coroner’s report needed to rule out ‘foul play’ specifically.
To make matters worst, Ms Heritage discovered their travel insurance did not cover accidental death, meaning she would need tens of thousands of dollars to get Daniel’s body back to Australia.
She said her ‘biggest worry’ was getting her husband back to his family but without a $12,000 deposit no funeral home would take him.
Luckily, Mr Heritage’s mother was able to immediately pay the deposit.
Ms Heritage (right) said she knew Daniel (left) was dead when first responders said they planned on getting her down from the cliff before him
Ms Heritage was required to pay $8,000 to fly her husband back to Adelaide and another $15,000 for his funeral.
Her twin sister, Jessica, raised $42,830 of the $50,000 needed to afford the arrangements with a GoFundMe campaign.
‘The death was very traumatic for Emma as she witnessed the accident and held him in her arms as he passed,’ Jessica wrote at the time.
‘Please continue to pray for Emma and our families as we navigate this lifelong grief.’
When Ms Heritage was finally able to fly back to Australia she felt conflicted about leaving the place she last saw her husband alive.
Ms Heritage said that she returned to the spot where it happened in 2023 and was left frustrated and confused as to how her husband could have died there
She returned to the exact location where Daniel had died in 2023 and even re-climbed the same cliff to try to understand how he had lost his footing.
‘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 [frustration that I felt] when I climbed above where he fell,’ Ms Heritage said.
She explained the frustration came from not being able to understand why Daniel had fell when the climb was well within their skill level.
Ms Heritage has since tried to stop fixating on how the tragedy occurred, saying she has come to terms with his death and will simply continue to miss him.
