Body of missing US ski-mountaineer found near summit of Manaslu in Himalayas
A Record-breaking big mountain skier has been found dead two days after she was reported missing near the summit of a Himalayan peak.
Hilaree Nelson, a 49-year-old mother of two, is understood to have fallen from the 8,163m (26,781ft) Mount Manaslu.
Her body was recovered by a local helicopter company yesterday and transported to a hospital in Kathmandu for a post-mortem examination.
She had been descending the world’s eighth-highest mountain with her partner, Jim Morrison.
The couple, who are believed to have reached the summit on Monday, had planned to ski down the mountain.
Instead, she was swept off her feet by a small avalanche while en-route to join up with their Sherpa team.
In an Instagram posting last week, Ms Nelson described the challenging conditions the two had faced, which led them to abandon their first attempt to reach the peak.
“Back bent and head down. I haven’t felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya,” she wrote.
“These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways. The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick.”
Mr Morrison said Ms Nelson died after falling down a narrow slope on the south side of the mountain.
“There are no words to describe the love for this woman, my life partner, my lover, my best friend, and my mountain partner,” he said. “My loss is indescribable, and I am focused on her children and their steps forward.”
Ms Nelson’s death comes after two decades as a ski-mountaineer, during which she has trekked across more than a dozen countries.
In 2012, she became the first woman to climb Mount Everest and Lhotse in under 24 hours.
Ms Nelson had been captain of the North Face athlete team since 2018. “Today we lost our hero, mentor, and our friend,” the company said.
“Hilaree Nelson held a spirit as big as the places she led us to. She embodied possibility. Her adventures made us feel at home in the vastness of the world.”