Johnson’s fiancee Hannah Christian wrote in a public social media post: “Nate always joked,’I came here to have a great time, not long.’ He likes mountains and all the adventures on the mountains.”

“He is doing mountaineering projects with his closest and most trusted friend, which feels so right.”

At around 7:45 in the morning, a piece of ice and snow on Andromeda Mountain broke and gave way. The two Alberta men were climbing Skyladder (a popular ice climbing project of moderate difficulty)

Peter Tucker said that the plate was about 3,000 meters above sea level and caused a 2.5-degree avalanche., Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Mountain Guides (ACMG).

Tucker said: “It hit them and took them all the way to the glacier below.”

“It cannot survive.”

Their bodies were found in the Columbia Ice Field shortly after 8:30 in the morning

‘Passion for wild spaces’

Abel, 29, is a rock climbing guide for the Red Deer team. He hiked, fished and kayaked with his father, and climbed in Alberta for more than ten years.

He is training to be a mountain guide, honing his skills on ice and snow.

He collaborated with Girth Hitch Guideing, a Red Deer adventure therapy program, responsible for leading the climbing expedition in the David Thompson corridor.

Recently, Abel helped organize a trash cleanup in the David Thompson area and recruited about 100 members of the climbing community to keep his favorite mountain in its original state.

“He spends every free time on rock climbing and shares his passion for the wild space with the people around him,” his wife Brinnae Erb-Abel wrote in a public post on social media.

“I know that Andrew is pursuing the things he loves and doing so with the people he loves, which makes me feel relieved.”

Johnson is an energetic man with a big smile on his face. As an indoor climbing instructor and Red Seal mechanic, he is still working as an accounting apprentice. He volunteered as a downhill ski instructor and fencing instructor.

Christian said that his passions are diverse, but his heart is on the mountain.

My heart is buried under the snow.-Hannah Christian

She shared this passion and they often climbed together. When they reached a peak in Peru in 2017, he made suggestions.

They plan to hold a quiet wedding in rural Alberta in 2022.

She wrote: “I am very lucky to have Nate in my life for eight years. He is my best friend.”

“My heart is buried under the snow.”

Tucker said that although there are always inherent risks in the mountains, there were no obvious clues of danger that day.

“The difficulty is that even on a given route, all routes are on the same route, the situation can be very different,” he said.

“But that day, there was no reason to think that the group would cause this situation.”

Tucker said that both of them are members of ACMG and are well-known in Alberta’s mountaineering community. He said that their death was an unimaginable loss.

“Whenever a tragedy causes losses, there will be a loophole in the community that really cannot be filled.”