20 Years Later...A Seattle Story That Continues To Unfold

I met Katie Rose Fischer-Price for the first time at a Seattle bar with friends a little over a year ago. She was immediately engaging, and after talking for a while, she casually slipped in that she would be heading to Everest Base Camp that May. I was confused why she didn't seem more excited. After some prodding, she mentioned that her father was famed climber Scott Fischer, and how he was the reason for her mission.

A little starstruck, I started to tell Katie how I knew all about her father, I had pored over all of the books, videos, and articles surrounding the infamous '96 Everest climb that took his life and the lives of seven others—I was practically an expert. I realize now just how patient and kind she was in that moment as she told me straight-faced, "That's not the whole story."

Over the next year Katie and her vast support system opened up and gave me that story. All the while, Katie was writing her own impressive narrative in the places her dad loved when they needed it most, and sharing that with me as well.

Today marks 20 years since the tragic events on Mt. Everest that took Scott's life, along with those of Rob Hall, Andy Harris, Doug Hansen, Yasuko Namba,Tsewang Samanla, Dorje Marup, and Tsewang Paljor. For many, those events feel like yesterday, as if time has stood still for all this time. What will stick with me most is that Katie and her brother Andy have refused to be stuck in time with them, becoming their own forces in this life, and honoring their late father in the process. I have to think Scott would be pretty stoked on that.

I was privileged enough to tell Katie and the Fischer-Price's story in a feature inside Seattle Metropolitan Magazine's May Issue. I'm one of thousands of people that could have written it, but I'm just glad it's out there for people to see. In closing, hug your mom, call your old friend, tell that person how you really feel. This stuff is too precious not to.

You can check the article out in the May Issue on newsstands now or HERE online (fo' free).