By Kirra Livingstone
Hinterland local, Ben Heaton, has been remembered by friends as a ‘generous guy’ with a genuine love of the Glasshouse Mountains.
Ben was found dead at a Mount Beerwah hiking trail on Sunday evening at about 5.30pm.
It is believed the 42-year-old suffered a medical episode while solo climbing the popular mountain.
The passionate climber grew up in the Glass House Mountains and helped found climbing group, Save Our Summits, aimed at promoting mountain climbing and a shared love for mountains.
Save Our Summits co-creator, Craig Evans, said he relied on Ben in the creation of the group, and his close friend of five years will be deeply missed.
“For me personally, setting up the Save Our Summits group, I relied on Ben so heavily, he would read everything and he had great knowledge, he would just digest all that information,” he said.
“He was a great help to me personally but beyond that, as a friend, he had a really generous spirit and I thoroughly enjoyed climbing with him as countless other people did.”
Craig said that nobody had a bad word to say about Ben. “I would say he was a great friend to countless people, he was a loving father, and he was incredibly generous with his time and his advice, he was always on hand to help people,” he said.
“He was a highly intelligent guy, but quietly intelligent, he wouldn’t shout about.
“His death is devastating but at the same time, it’s almost comforting really, he passed away on Mount Beerwah which was his second home, he was up there constantly.”
