Susan Erica Fear was an Australian mountain climber, supporter of the Fred Hollows Foundation and a 2005 recipient of the Order of Australia medal in the Queen"s birthday honours.
Background
Fear was born on 18 March 1963 in Street Ives, New South Wales, Australia, she was the middle child in her family, with two brothers Grahame and John. Her mother Joan died from breast cancer in May 1988, and her father Ron died unexpectedly of a heart attack in June 2002.
Education
Fear attended Street Ives North Public School in her primary school years where she was the School Captain, and later attended Abbotsleigh (7-10) where she was the softball captain, and Barker College (11-12) in Sydney"s north where she was a prefect and the captain of both hockey and cricket.
Career
Her life and climbing career is illustrated in her biography Fear Number Boundary: The Road to Everest and Beyond, written by fellow climber Lincoln Hall and Fear, published in 2005. Her parents were Ron and Joan Fear. After leaving school, Fear took an office job with Wilderness Expeditions, an adventure travel company founded by Tim Macartney-Snape.
That company was later acquired by World Expeditions, and she moved out of the office and into the field
She became an adventure guide and led cross country ski trips in Australia as well as treks in Africa, South America and Asia. She was recognized as one of the company"s senior guides, leading many physically challenging mountaineering expeditions.
Fear was also named the 2003 Adventurer of the Year by the Australian Geographic Society. She was an ambassador for the Australian Himalayan Foundation, and also helped raise funds for Australian Nepalese Medical Group.
Fears" life and climbing career is written about in the biographical book Fear Number Boundary: The Road to Everest and Beyond, written by fellow climber Lincoln Hall (with Sue Fear), and first published in Melbourne by Lothian s in 2005.
Fear died on Sunday, 28 May 2006, when she fell into a crevasse (approx 7,800 m) while descending from the summit of Manaslu in Nepal. Manaslu was her fifth climb of a mountain over 8,000 metres. Her body remains on the mountain, honouring an earlier request if she were to die whilst climbing a mountain.
A plaque now lies in memory of her just above the town of Bandipur on a small hill facing Manaslu.