Wife and daughter of explorer locked in High Court battle over his £10m fortune eight years after he was killed in an avalanche

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026 · last updated 26 September 2026.

Paul Samuel, a mountaineer, author and entrepreneur who perished with two other climbers in a Peruvian avalanche in 2018, left his £10m estate divided almost evenly between his partner Ana Lesiak Samuel and his daughter Kate Samuel — yet eight years on, not a penny has been distributed. A bitter rift between the two women, sparked by a dispute over who should be allowed to attend Samuel's memorial, has brought the estate to a standstill. A London High Court judge has been called in to resolve the impasse.

Samuel, 55, died on Alpamayo in the Peruvian Andes on an expedition he had intended to be his last.

The dispute between Ana Lesiak Samuel, 59, and daughter Kate, 25, is described in court as a relationship that became progressively 'tense'.

Judge Master Francesca Kaye must now cut through years of paralysis after lawyer Anna Unett, appointed to administer the estate, proved unable to settle the disagreement.