{"id":3873,"date":"2026-05-03T11:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3873\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T11:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:29:19","slug":"sister-of-deceased-rock-climber-angela-ha-says-the-best-way-to-honour-her-is-to-live-life-to-the-fullest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3873\/","title":{"rendered":"Sister of deceased rock climber Angela Ha says the best way to honour her is to ‘live life to the fullest’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angela Ha’s younger sister Michelle remembers her as “the fun” in their family: warm, ruthlessly positive and endlessly adventurous.<\/p>\n

Angela, 24, lost her life after falling while rock climbing at Organ Pipes at Mount Arapiles in western Victoria about 11:30am on Monday, April 27.<\/p>\n

She died later at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne, 50 minutes before Michelle and their father Daniel arrived from Sydney.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Angela Ha (left) and her sister Michelle (right) were best friends. (Supplied: Michelle Ha)<\/p>\n

‘The centre of her world’<\/p>\n

Michelle said Angela began climbing about five years ago. It quickly became, in Michelle’s words, “the centre of her world”.<\/p>\n

As a child, Angela and her sibling were always active. They ran in cross-country, played soccer and competed at athletics.<\/p>\n

But Michelle said climbing gave Angela a true sense of purpose.<\/p>\n

\"Tanned<\/p>\n

Angela Ha’s loved ones remember her as warm, adventurous and positive. (Supplied: Michelle Ha)<\/p>\n

“She was always a go-getter,” Michelle said.<\/p>\n

“Never sitting still, trying out new things constantly and loving everything.<\/p>\n

“She always loved nature, loved animals, loved friends, but when she did start rock climbing it really started to shape who she was as a person.”<\/p>\n

Michelle laughed recalling the one attempt she made at following Angela up a cliff.<\/p>\n

“I went up once and I came straight back down,” Michelle said.<\/p>\n

“But she was a great teacher and I was glad I got up there.”<\/p>\n

Older sister, best friend<\/p>\n

To Michelle, Angela was an older sister and a best friend. The person she did everything with.<\/p>\n

Michelle said Angela’s presence felt like a “warm hug”.<\/p>\n

She said people gravitated to Angela because she made everyone feel “nothing but comfortable”.<\/p>\n

The sisters often spoke about Angela’s adventures: a new trail, a new route, a new country.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

Angela and Michelle Ha celebrate their birthdays five days apart each February. (Supplied: Michelle Ha)<\/p>\n

There is a gap of three years between Angela, the oldest sibling, and Michelle, who is 21. And they have two more younger siblings: Stephanie (15) and Marcus (13).<\/p>\n

Michelle and Angela were both born in February.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s only been one year out of my 21 years of living that I haven’t celebrated my birthday with her next to me,” Michelle said.<\/p>\n

“I won’t have her physically there to celebrate every year anymore.”<\/p>\n

Their parents, Daniel and Ruby, weren’t ready to speak and asked Michelle to take on that responsibility.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to climbing<\/p>\n

Angela was a strong climber. Her work ethic in the sport paralleled her academic success.<\/p>\n

She completed a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2023.<\/p>\n

After taking a gap year in 2024, she began a Doctorate of Physiotherapy at the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n

When she was younger, Angela wanted to be an architect.<\/p>\n

After falling in love with rock climbing, her goal shifted. She decided she wanted to become someone who could help rock climbers heal after injury.<\/p>\n

‘I got to see her one last time’<\/p>\n

Angela was several days into a 10-day expedition with UNSW friends when she fell.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Angela Ha climbing at Mount Arapiles hours before her fall on Monday. (Supplied: Michelle Ha)<\/p>\n

Police and Ambulance Victoria said emergency services were called to Mount Arapiles on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

SES volunteers climbed with paramedics to reach Angela on the wall.<\/p>\n

Later, advanced life support crew and mobile intensive care paramedics winched Angela to an ambulance helicopter, moving her to a nearby paddock where she was treated for more than an hour.<\/p>\n

Michelle was in Sydney when she received a call from Angela’s close friend, Margot.<\/p>\n

Michelle had only met Margot once and knew immediately the call would be about something bigger than “a couple of bumps or a graze”.<\/p>\n

“I was in the city on the light rail and I grabbed my little sister and said we had to go home.”<\/p>\n

She spoke with more of Angela’s friends who were at the crag when she fell and they told Michelle she had been moving, scratching her arms and nose occasionally, after the fall.<\/p>\n

“Angela has had injuries and she’s always been able to make it through,” Michelle said.<\/p>\n

Michelle and her father Daniel booked the next flight to Melbourne to see Angela in hospital.<\/p>\n

Angela’s mother Ruby stayed at home in Sydney, caring for her youngest children.<\/p>\n

Angela died at 9:40pm on Monday.<\/p>\n

Michelle and Daniel arrived at the hospital less than an hour later.<\/p>\n

They sat with Angela for about 5 hours, talking to her and holding her hand.<\/p>\n

“I’m glad I got to see her one last time,” Michelle said.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Rock climbing was the centre of Angela Ha’s world, Michelle says. (Supplied: Michelle Ha)<\/p>\n

Honouring her<\/p>\n

Angela’s family has raised more than $60,000 on GoFundMe to celebrate Angela’s life.<\/p>\n

Michelle said the family had barely discussed the money.<\/p>\n

“Dad was saying the numbers [money] didn’t really mean much to him,” Michelle said.<\/p>\n

“He is very appreciative and grateful but the fact over 600 people have shown support and love to Angela, he has been ecstatic about that.<\/p>\n

“I just want everyone to live their life, to live their daily life to the fullest. In doing so, it’s very much honouring her.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angela Ha’s younger sister Michelle remembers her as “the fun” in their family: warm, ruthlessly positive and endlessly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5105,5104,22,21,5102,5107,5106,5101,5109,5108,5103],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-angela-ha","tag-arapiles","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-climbing","tag-organ-pipes","tag-outdoors","tag-rock","tag-rock-climber-death","tag-rock-climber-fall","tag-rockclimbing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}