A Brit crushed to death by 1,300 tonnes of rock in Yosemite National Park was killed trying to save his wife, it has emerged.
Climbing enthusiasts Andy and Lucy Foster were celebrating their first year of marriage with an adventure holiday in California when tragedy struck.
The pair were on a popular hiking trail near the famous El Capitan peak when a piece of rock "the size of an apartment" fellow down the mountain.
Andy was killed and Lucy suffered serious injuries including broken ribs and a punctured lung.
Last night Andy's aunt Gillian Stephens told The Times: "She said: 'Andrew saved my life. He dived on top of me as soon as he could see what was going to happen. He saved my life'."
One of the last photos taken of Mr Foster shows him taking a rest during a climb a day before he died, with Lucy, 28, writing in the caption: "Yosemite has broken Andy. Time for a rest."
Other snaps show him posing happily with two thumbs up in front of El Capitan on the day they arrived, and standing with a pile of gear as the couple - who had just celebrated their one year wedding anniversary - left Heathrow Airport on September 11.
The Fosters were just months away from taking a year-long break from their work and travelling around the Alps in a converted van to climb and ski stunning mountains.
Mr Foster, from Cardiff, was buried when a "sheet" of granite around 40 metres by 20 metres plummeted from a height of 200 metres at the park in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains on Wednesday afternoon.
Mrs Foster was carried from the base of El Capitan and airlifted to hospital by paramedics.
It was believed the pair, carrying their climbing gear, had been scouting out the ascent from a trail when the granite fell and had not yet started scaling the cliff face.
Friends and colleagues remembered Mr Foster, a UK sales rep for the outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia, as a dedicated climber with an "enormous and infectious" passion for the outdoors, especially mountains.
The Fosters were an extremely adventurous couple, spending much of their free time climbing mountains, skiing in the Alps or taking part in other outdoors activities, including kayaking and spear fishing.
In 2015, he proposed to her at Aiguille du Midi during a trip to Mont Blanc in the French Alps.
Days later wrote how he bought her an engagement wring and she bought him "engagement skis". The couple married in a yurt in August last year.
The couple, who met at university in Cardiff, were preparing to leave their home in South Wales to embark on their next major adventure after Yosemite.
Earlier this month, Mrs Foster posted a Facebook photo of her husband in front of a van as she announced their plans to tour around the Alps.
She wrote: "We're moving out of our lovely house to live in a van for a year and travel around the Alps skiing climbing and being X-treme to the max!"
They had planned to start their adventure after Christmas.
The Fosters kept a blog called Cam and Bear and regularly wrote of their adventures and posted photos from their climbs.
They wrote on the blog: "We are a young married couple who enjoy nothing more than getting out and having adventures in the mountains together.
"We are not extreme athletes and describe ourselves simply as passionate weekend warriors. While our blog is just a log of what we have done we do hope that it will inspire other people to get out and experience the natural world."
Mr Foster also mentioned the couple's plans to travel to Yosemite, writing that he was getting in shape and preparing through climbs in the UK.
He wrote in May: "On a recent wet weekend in the peaks I dusted of the old aid climbing gear and aid soled London Wall at Millstone.
"Haven't aid climbed in over three years and took a bit of a whipper in the process. Need to get back on it for Yosemite trip Im off on in September!"
Mrs Foster also described her training with a climbing group in May, writing: "Yosemite. September. 3 weeks. A rock climbers dream!!"
She added: "I realised Andy didn’t care about seconding easier routes, he actually quite likes the rest! And he has enjoyed seeing me regain my confidence and we have big dreams for multi-pitches in Yosemite and the Alps."
Mr Foster had plenty of experience climbing and had scaled rocks and cliffs in Yosemite a number of times before. He had posted photos online from climbs in the park 2009 and 2011.
In recent years he had worked for US-based Patagonia, where his colleagues in Europe were devastated after learning of his death.
Alex Beasley, manager of the firm's operations in UK and Ireland, said: "It is with much sadness that we mourn the loss of our dear friend and colleague Andrew Foster, who was killed in a tragic accident in Yosemite.
"Andy was a sales representative working in our UK team and had been with the business for five years.
"He was a much-loved member of our team and a passionate climber, mountaineer and skier who loved being in the outdoors.
"Our thoughts and condolences are with his wife Lucy and their families. We offer them our deepest sympathies."
Before joining Patagonia Mr Foster had worked for the outdoor retailer Up and Under, in Cardiff, for five years up to 2010.
The company said in a statement: "Andy Foster was an inspirational member of the Up and Under family. He was a highly regarded member of staff for five years, before he took a job with Patagonia.
"He remained a dedicated friend of Up and Under, and was regularly to be found in the store.
"His passion for the outdoors, and mountains in particular, was enormous and infectious. Andy and Lucy’s intentions upon returning from Yosemite were, with the help of Andy’s father, to covert a van into a motor home to enable them to explore the European Alps for the next twelve months.
"It was then our hope that Andy would return to Up and Under in a part time consultative role, whilst he also chased other ambitions.
"Andy was highly respected, loved and his loss will be sorely felt by us all. Our thoughts are with Lucy and his family."
Up and Under supported the couple's latest adventures and had published individual profiles of them on its website.
Mr Foster's profile listed his nickname as "Bad" and said he started climbing at a young age, competing in youth competitions.
He joined the Cardiff University Mountaineering Club (CUMC) while he was a student there, and became a prolific climber who conquered challenging peaks.
He took trips to Yosemite for "big walling adventures" and had lost count of the number of times he had visited the Alps.
Mrs Foster's profile describes her as a "mountain lover" and "keen trail runner" whose passion for climbing began when she joined CUMC.
Mr Foster's death is the first fatality from a rock fall in Yosemite in four years when another climber was killed, according to the parks service.
Prior to that, the last climber to die from a similar accident was in 1999.
Park ranger Scott Gediman said: "With all the craziness I don't exactly know where they were going but chances are they were going up.
"From what I understand they were buried under rock... They were crushed by falling rocks."
They are the only people known to have been injured in the rock fall. Rescuers carried out a search and later said everyone had been accounted for.
Several teams of climbers were in the area when the tragedy happened.
Mike Kane, who witnessed the rock fall, wrote on Twitter that it was "very loud" and it was a "miracle more (were) not hurt".
Mr Gediman said seven rockfalls occurred during a four-hour span above the base of the famous monolith. There are usually around 80 a year in the park.
One man referred to the rock fall as being the "size of an apartment" and the biggest in memory.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in contact with the local authorities and providing assistance to both families at this very difficult time."
Meanwhile, a second rockfall at the site on Thursday left one person injured who was airlifted to hospital.
El Capitan, one of Yosemite’s best-known landmarks, is considered a world-class challenge for rock climbers.
Source: Mirror
