Tommy Brodribb on Windtower Mountain

Hey little guy, though I heard that hasn’t been the case for quite some time now, just one question, what were you doing up on a Kananaskis cliff face in the first place? Are you not still 6 years old? Mom told me what happened tonight and I feel ill that no matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen you, I would’ve done what I could to have kept you around.

Your big brother and I used to torment/beat down upon you incessantly, because at 5 years your senior that was our birth right as bigger boys, and yet you somehow managed to evolve into some rock climbing guru from all of that, likely a towering behemoth from the sounds of things and not the stunted stoolie you are on the marquee of my brain bowl-a-rama.

You were a brat but you came about it honestly and when you squealed on Dan and I for having unearthed your dad’s vintage Playboy stash circa 1981, we thrashed you pretty good.

They call you a man in the newspaper article, could that be right? You mean you’re not the melon head who used to warn your sister that we were coming up from the basement with loaded squirt guns to douse her and her pimple spackled friends in Barbie Land?

In the article and on a few rock climbing sites, your dad’s quoted as saying that you died “doing what you loved”, well man, if that was the case I wish you could’ve squealed on Dan and I one more time for good measure and then you could’ve kicked both our asses and close the loop eternal.

If I ever make it north of hell, I hope you’ll throw me a line from up there man, I’ll buy you a pint and you can tell me all the stuff I missed out on. I have to warn you that I’m afraid of heights though, a scared old guy without a pilot light.

Goodnight little guy.