Dhe famous ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson died in an accident in the Himalayas. A search team found the lifeless body of the 49-year-old on Wednesday, who fell into a crevasse shortly after the summit on Monday while descending Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world.
The rescue work with two helicopters had previously been hampered by bad weather conditions, a spokesman for the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism said. Nelson’s body is now to be taken to the base camp of the summit and later flown to Kathmandu.
Nelson, who is survived by her two sons, Graydon and Quinn, and her partner, Jim Morrison, is remembered as one of the greatest ski mountaineers in history. In 2012 she became the first woman to conquer Mount Everest and its neighboring mountain Lhotse within 24 hours, and in 2018 she pioneered the first ski descent from Lhotse.
Second fatality at Manaslu
Last Thursday, Nelson admitted via Instagram that this time he didn’t feel as safe “as in my past adventures in the thin air of the Himalayas. The last few weeks have been a whole new test of my resilience.”
Nelson is the second confirmed fatality of the fall climbing season. On the day of her accident, an avalanche had broken off between camps three and four on 8,163-meter-high Manaslu, killing Nepalese climber Anup Rai and injuring a dozen other climbers. This could later be saved.
Nepal is home to eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world. Foreign climbers flock to the mountains in droves, making them an important source of income for the country. However, the environmental damage caused by mass tourism in the Himalayas is also striking.
