'If he didn't go he would have regretted it all of his life,' she told KCRA TV.

'And as a wife, if I had asked him not to go and he died at the gym, than I would have a regret.'

Mr Hitch, who turned 55 while on the mountain, had been raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention after his 25-year-old daughter Cory died last year.

At the time he and Mrs Hitch had been in Australia for his climb up Kosciuszko and ironically on his way home he thought long and hard about the risks he was facing in climbing Everest.

'I came to the notion where I’m not afraid of putting my life at risk, but what I’m putting at risk is my kids’ father’s life, and my wife’s husband’s life, and do you really have a right to do that?' he told the Roseville Press Tribune in March before he left for Everest.

'But after I cancelled it, I just couldn’t get over it. This is a goal I’ve worked hard for,' he added.

He was also raising money for the American Cancer Society, for his brother Ray.

And so he ploughed on with his training - six days a week for a whole year in order to conquer the mountain that reaches 29,035 feet - or five-and-a-half miles - into the sky at the summit.

He did three hours at a gym three days a week; he went to Sugar Bowl once a week to climb; and walked up and down steps at the football stadium where all three of his daughters had gone to high school, carrying an 80-pound back pack.

All for nothing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383686/Father-climbing-Everest-memory-daughter-dies-heart-attack-just-reaches-summit.html