Councillor died abseiling ice waterfall in Italy

The death of a climber who became trapped in a hole while abseiling a frozen waterfall on holiday has been ruled accidental.

Stephen Lismore, a Labour councillor on Chesterfield Borough Council, died in Cogne, a town in northern Italy, on 7 February.

Derbyshire senior coroner Peter Nieto said in a record of inquest the 71-year-old entered a hole in the ice during a descent by abseil and "became trapped in the hole in very cold water."

In his conclusion, the coroner said Lismore died due to hypothermia and ruled his death an accident.

The coroner said Lismore travelled to Cogne in the Aosta Valley for the climbing holiday with his club.

On the day they arrived, he and his clubmates went to a nearby frozen waterfall to abseil down its face.

Although he was not directly observed at the time, Lismore entered a hole in the ice while descending the abseil, which "would have been accidental".

The record states members of the club tried to rescue their friend but were unable to reach him.

The mountain rescue service used a helicopter to pull him out but he was "unresponsive and could not be resuscitated and was pronounced deceased at the scene".

Due to the time he was in very cold water, Lismore had become fatally hypothermic, the coroner added.

Lismore, who was also appointed the council's cabinet member for health and wellbeing, was born in Toronto, Canada but moved to the UK, where he studied and later settled in the Peak District.

A number of people including the leader of Chesterfield Borough Council and the town's MP Toby Perkins, paid tribute following his death.

Lismore's family said he was "warm, outgoing, and effortlessly at ease with strangers".

"Climbing was core to Steve's identity, and he went whenever life allowed," they said.

"His natural charisma and passion for a better world drew him into public life, and after working as a civil servant, he founded the charity Touchstone.

"Steve also served as a county and borough councillor, and remained a committed Labour advocate, animated by a stubborn belief that things could be better, and therefore should be."

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