I’ll climb the same mountain which claimed my dad’s life
THE daughter of a renowned climber will attempt to scale the same mountain where her dad died ‘doing what he loved.’
Steve Perry, who was ‘Rochdale born and bred,’ tragically passed away in February of this year at the age of just 47, while hiking in the Scottish Highlands.
His daughter, Adele, will take to the same hills herself in his memory to raise money for the rescue teams who risked their own lives attempting to save Steve and his close friend Andy Nisbet.
Steve and Andy, both highly experienced climbers, got into trouble on Ben Hope on February 5.
The pair are believed to have fallen on their descent from the 900m summit, and Steve suffered spinal injuries leaving them exposed to ‘atrocious weather conditions.’
Their bodies were found the next day.
Adele, who lives in Littleborough, said: “I remember it was the worst day of my life. I couldn’t believe it to be honest. It was my auntie who phoned me – I just thought ‘no, it can’t be possible.’ It was only later in the day that we learned that not only had my dad died but his best friend had as well.
“There was a lot of rumours and speculation but we just have to say that we’ll never really know what happened on the day. All we know is that they died together, doing something that they both really loved.
“That was the only thing I can take from it – that he died doing what he loved.”
The 24-year-old said she came up with the idea about a month after that tragic day, inspired by her father.
“I knew I wanted to do something because he did a lot of charity work while he was alive,” she said.
“He was the sort of person who would do something good out of his hobbies so I thought what better way to do it than to raise money for the people who tried to help save his life.
“It’s to give something back to the mountain rescue teams for all they went through on the day. They did their best to save his life. The weather actually closed in on the rescue teams on the mountain – they had to abandon it.
“It was a really hard decision to make but they were risking their own lives – the weather conditions were atrocious.”
Adele, who works as support staff in a vets, said that her father and Andy were attempting to discover a new route on Ben Hope – the most northerly of the Munro mountains – when they had some kind of accident.
She said the family later learned that Steve had made two emergency phone calls to rescue teams, but there wasn’t enough time to save them.
She said her dad, was ‘born and bred’ in Rochdale but moved to Scotland in his late 30s – where Adele’s two half-sisters still live – because of a life-long love of the country.
“I don’t know where he got it from, he just had such a passion for climbing and for Scotland,” she said.
“I remember when we were having a drink once that he just said to me how much he loved it up there.”
Though Adele enjoys being outside and walking, she says the climb in February will be much more physically difficult now than it would have been with her dad by her side.
She said: “I think it will be more mentally hard than anything, knowing I am in the place where he was when he died.
“It’s been the hardest year ever. I don’t have my dad here to ask for his amazing advice but I have rest of my family. I am blessed in some ways but not in others – I always try to see the shiny side of the coin.”
The money raised will go towards both the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team – www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/adele-perry1 – and the Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team – www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ adele-perry2 .