PHOENIX — A Valley woman is turning her pain into purpose and trying to save lives in the process.
It's easily one of the Valley's most recognizable landmarks - as majestic as it is steep, as alluring as it is unpredictable, and as beautiful as it is treacherous.
"It's Camelback. You see it right in the middle of the city. I will see it all the time, so I wanted to be able to create something where I wouldn't be constantly triggered by it," explains Chelsey McHale, who knows the duality of this mountain better than most.
"I will always have a love-hate relationship with this mountain," explains McHale.
And it's for good reason. In 2011, her older brother, Clint, an experienced hiker, went off-trail on the mountain and fell 50 feet to his death.
"That's when I understood the fall to your knees where your knees buckle. Because that's what happened. I collapsed," she explains, as she remembers getting the devastating news, just days before graduating from Northern Arizona University.
As the news began to sink in, McHale then realized she would have to be the one to break the horrifying news to their father.
"I can still hear my dad's cries and screams - it doesn't matter how much time passes. It's been 12 years but there are still things where it feels like it was just yesterday. "
One factor that made Clint's death even harder to accept for McHale was knowing how experienced and knowledgeable her older brother was. As an accomplished hiker, Clint would hike Camelback Mountain twice a week, but he had made the decision to go off-trail that day without the proper gear.
"Even though he was smart and fit and an avid hiker, he made a really poor decision and I'm not going to say he didn't," McHale says. "There's a lot of people who made similar decisions but with him... it cost him his life."
For McHale and the rest of their family, it cost them their futures with the young man whose life was cut way too short.
"I kind of felt this identity loss," McHale said. "I'm not a little sister anymore because he's gone. How does a little sister get older than her big brother? I surpassed that age and it's very surreal to be now so much older than him. He is forever 25, but if he were to come back now, I would still think of him as my big brother. I would still think he's smarter than me and more wise. I will always think that."
But through this horrible tragedy, McHale has been able to find an incredible purpose that's already making a difference in our community.
"In a roundabout way, does it give you joy to be here? Knowing how much he loved hiking?" ABC15's Nick Ciletti asked McHale.
"Yes," McHale responded. "He hiked Camelback twice a week. He loved this mountain and so that's why it's sort of a love-hate because he loved it but it's also the same mountain that took his life."
She continued: "It's hard sometimes because I kind of think about where he went off-trail and that kind of plays in my head. I think about all the time on the mountain - but because I put the safety sign up there, I have somewhere to go to and sit by and just kind of spin it to where it's something more positive - to share my message and not be negative about it."
And share her message she has.
In 2014, McHale was able to get the City of Phoenix to post a sign on Camelback Mountain that both honors her brother and reminds hikers of the potential dangers ahead.
"I've seen people look at it with their spouse and friends or whoever they are with. And they say, 'I don't think we have enough water, I don't know if we are fully prepared, let's go back around.' That's what sticks with me. Because who knows if they didn't see that sign what would have happened?"
And it wasn't just the sign.
In 2017, McHale went undercover with ABC15 to find out what exactly Valley resorts were telling their guests before heading out on a hike.
"They are doing significantly better from when we last went six years ago," says McHale.
And now, it's a new mission: becoming a volunteer park steward for the City of Phoenix.
"That can mean many things. Helping out on the trails, handing out water, cleaning up the trails, any garbage, really educating people at the base of the trails...you never know what person you are going to reach."
Ciletti asked McHale where her strength comes from after her family's tragedy.
"I had to make purpose out of it. I had to make meaning because I struggled going forward and living without my brother - and I didn't know if I wanted to do it. And OK, then if I'm going to stay here, I need to make a purpose out of it," she said.
"What do you think Clint would say about all of this?" Ciletti asked.
"I know he sees it," McHale said. "I feel like he gives me signs that I'm headed in the right direction. And I think he would be so proud of me."