Highland Park native Alex Pancoe, who made headlines for his mountain climbing and fundraising as a cancer survivor, died Sunday climbing the fifth-highest mountain in the world, leaving his young family devastated as they and others remember his legacy of charity and kindness.
Alex Pancoe was 38. According to reports, he died while nearly 28,000 feet up Makalu in the Himalayas. He became unresponsive while settling into his sleeping bag, according to a post by the expedition organizer Madison Mountaineering, and resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
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He leaves behind a 7-month-old daughter, a 2-year-old son and his wife, Nina. She described him as, “the most determined, passionate, kind (and) generous person I have ever met.”
“He worked so hard to fight for his dreams, to fight for what he loved,” Pancoe said.
She said her husband died doing what he loved, although the news has left her world “shattered.” They had always joked about him dying an old man climbing some mountain, but for him to go so young is “heartbreaking.”
The two met thanks to his love of climbing and fundraising work for Lurie Children’s Hospital, where he had been treated for a brain tumor as a teen. She was a TV producer in Chicago at the time, and met him for a story.
Despite the numerous headlines he would make, she was always impressed by his humility. It was “about helping other people,” Pancoe said. The two quickly hit it off.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is really cool,’” she recalled, saying they started following each other on social media. “It was during that Arctic storm in Chicago a few years ago, and I messaged, ‘You’re training outside? It must be really cold out.’ Something really cheesy that we would laugh about.”
On their first date, she said she “knew he was the one right away.” Three months later, while he was scaling Mount Everest, she was moving into his apartment and, she said, “the rest is history.”
Alex Pancoe’s climbing journey started less than a decade ago, but in that time he had achieved the Explorers Grand Slam, a feat that involves scaling the highest mountain on each continent, including Mount Everest, and trekking to each pole, surviving dangerous conditions and near-death experiences.
He was born and raised in Highland Park, and spent his entire life in the Chicagoland area. He graduated from Highland Park High School in 2004, going on to attend Northwestern University.
It was between his freshman and sophomore years, in 2005, that he discovered at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago that his headaches were being caused by a brain tumor.
It was successfully removed, and he graduated in 2009. He would move from Evanston to Chicago, pursuing a career with Morgan Stanley. According to several webpages generated by Alex Pancoe, he was an avid sports fan, lifelong skier and foodie.
Nina Pancoe, after her time as a producer and writer in television news, became a self-described mom, adventurer and traveler.
The pair had climbed a few mountains together, and she had even managed to climb Mount Kilimanjaro just two months before he did.
“I always held that (over) him,” Pancoe said, laughing. “Even though you’re the big climber, ha ha, I beat you.”
His death is a devastating loss for the family, she said. Their daughter will have no memories of him, and will only know her father through photographs. She had to break the news to their son gently.
“Daddy got a really bad owie on the mountain, and he’s not coming down,” she told him.
And for her, it is a terrible ending to what had been a “fairytale romance.” She recalled her heart dropping when she saw the call from the satellite phone, and hearing the news. It’s still hard to come to terms with it, she said.
“I still woke up this morning thinking about something, and was like, ‘Oh, Alex is going to love this,’” Pancoe said. “It’s not real yet to me. I still think I’m going to see him pull up … open the doors, and give me a big hug and kiss.”
The family is planning a celebration of life later in the summer.
“That’s what Alex would have wanted,” she said. “He wouldn’t want people mourning him. He would want people coming together and celebrating.”
In a statement, a representative of Lurie Children’s Hospital said the people there are “deeply saddened” by the news of his death. He has been, “a cherished friend, advocate, and hero to our Lurie Children’s community.”
“Alex’s legacy is defined by his extraordinary courage, boundless generosity, and unwavering commitment to improving the lives of children and families facing serious health challenges,” the statement said.
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As a brain tumor and leukemia survivor, he, “transformed his personal journey into a global mission,” successfully raising more than a million dollars for pediatric brain tumor research. He had also committed to raising another $1 million for Lurie Children’s, and the hospital had named a nursing station on the Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation and Neuro-oncology Inpatient Unit in his honor.
“Beyond his philanthropic achievements, Alex was a beloved member of our community,” the statement continued. “Our deepest sympathy goes out to Alex’s family. We are profoundly grateful for the impact Alex made on our hospital and the lives of so many.”
Matt Adkins, a fellow climber, said he met Alex on a mountain in Colorado. The two stayed in touch, and Adkins said Alex helped him plan for several climbing trips in South America and the Himalayas. He said the news left him “heartbroken.”
“I know he had a deep love for his family, and he was a long-time student of the mountains,” Adkins said.
Madison Mountaineering called his passing a “tremendous loss,” and said their hearts went out to the family “during this incredibly difficult time.”
According to Reuters, Nepal’s tourism department is arranging to bring Alex’s body to Kathmandu, the capital.