Family pays tribute to climber who died achieving dream of conquering Mount Everest

The family of a British climber who died on Mount Everest has paid tribute to the “kind, caring and compassionate” adventurer - a man they called a “true hero”.

Robin Haynes Fisher, 44, from Burton-on-Trent had achieved his long-held ambition to reach the summit in the early hours of the morning, but collapsed on his way back down.

His sherpas tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at around 9.15am local time (4.30am BST).

Speaking exclusively to ITV News Central from a family home in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, today, his mother Jill said Robin had been a “wonderful son”.

Paying a tearful tribute, she said: “He was caring, compassionate, loving.

“He respected all life - he was vegetarian on ethical grounds. If something had breathed, he wouldn’t eat it.

“He loved all his nieces and nephews. We are a very close family - it’s going to leave an enormous hole.”

She said he’d been given a heroism award from the Burton Mail around 18 years ago, after diving into a water-filled ditch in Lincolnshire to save a woman from drowning.

“We were driving along and we saw her car go down the side - when we got there, it was flipped over and completely submerged,” she said.

“Robin dove straight down and started scrambling away the mud so he could open the door and get her out.

“He didn’t want me to nominate him - he didn’t want any fuss, he was very humble. But he was a real, true hero.”

Robin had been born in Burton-on-Trent but was living in Birmingham, working as an IT network engineer for Cisco.

His family found out what had happened in the early hours of the morning, when his partner Kristyn Carriere - who had accompanied him to Everest base camp - realised she should have heard from him if the trip had been a success.

She went online to try to find news, and found a report in the Himalayan Times.

Robin is the 10th person to lose his life on Mount Everest so far this climbing season.

“This week has been awful - just hoping every time that it’s not him,” she said.

“But this was something he had always wanted to do. He lived life to the full.”

She shared a video she had taken of Robin at base camp back in April.

"It should be a trip to remember," he says.

The couple met four years ago while working at Mondolez International in Bournville, Birmingham. They had been in the running club together, and she said even then, he had talked about wanting to climb Everest.

She said he had taken all precautions he could - travelling to Brussels to buy the best camping gear he could find, and taking nine oxygen bottles - above the usual four or five carried by climbers.

He also waited until the crowds had dispersed before attempting the ascent himself.

“He was an adventurer but he never took unnecessary risks,” His sister, Holly Merry, added.

“He knew it was dangerous but he always did everything the right way.

"We've seen reports saying the mountain has been overcrowded, but he actually waited until the blockages had gone so it would be safer."

“He was everything you could have wanted in a brother, a partner, a son,” she said.

His brother, Tim Fisher, said Robin had always “aimed for the top” - and had wanted to be an astronaut when he was young.

“I think this was as close as he could get,” he said.

“When people asked him ‘why’, he’d just say ‘why not?’

“He aimed for the utmost in everything he did - if there was an opportunity, he took it.”

In a statement, Murari Sharma from trekking company Everest Parivar Expeditions, said Robin and his sherpa Jangbu had reached the summit at 8.30am (3.45am BST).