KATHMANDU — The body of top US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson
was retrieved from the
Himalayas by a search team on Wednesday, two days after
she disappeared on the slopes of Nepal’s Manaslu peak.
اضافة اعلان
Nelson slipped and
went missing while skiing down the world’s eighth-highest mountain after a
successful summit with her partner Jim Morrison on Monday.
Morrison led the
search operations and found her body Wednesday morning, after landing at an
elevation of around 6,700m on a helicopter.
“I skied first and
after a few turns Hilaree followed and started a small avalanche. She was swept
off her feet and carried down a narrow snow slope down the south side (opposite
from climbing route) of the mountain,” Morrison posted on his Instagram,
describing what happened after their summit.
Morrison was able
to reach the base camp safely, but bad weather hampered the desperate search
operation on Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m in Kathmandu
with her and her spirit. My loss is indescribable, and I am focused on her
children and their steps forward. @hilareenelson is the most inspiring person
in life and now her energy will guide our collective souls,” he wrote.
“I’m devastated by
the loss of her.”
Nelson, 49, is
described by her sponsor, The North Face, as “the most prolific ski mountaineer
of her generation”.
A decade ago, she
became the first woman to summit both the highest mountain in the world,
Everest and the adjacent Lhotse peak within the span of 24 hours.
She returned to
Lhotse and made the first ski descent of the mountain in 2018, which earned her
the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award.
In an Instagram
post last week, Nelson said her latest climb had been deeply challenging
because of “incessant rain” and dangerous conditions.
“I haven’t felt as
sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of
the high Himalaya,” Nelson wrote in a post on Thursday.
“These past weeks
have tested my resilience in new ways.”
‘Her legacy’
Mountaineers and well-wishers have shared heartfelt messages for Nelson
since she went missing.
“Let’s pray for
Hilaree,” fellow The North Face athlete Fernanda Maciel, currently at the
Manaslu base camp, wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.
Mountain guide
Caroline George thanked Nelson for inspiring her own adventures.
“She is a beacon
... I have infinite gratitude for her journey on this planet and for the legacy
she leaves,” she wrote.
Constant rain and
snow have been a challenge for the 404 paying climbers attempting to reach the
summit of Manaslu this year.
On the same day as
Nelson’s accident, an avalanche hit between Camps 3 and 4 on the 8,163m
mountain, killing Nepali climber Anup Rai and injuring a dozen others who were
later rescued.
The deaths of Nelson
and Rai are the first confirmed casualties of the autumn climbing season in
Nepal.
Nepal is home to
eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, and foreign climbers who flock to its
mountains are a major source of revenue for the country.
The industry was
almost completely shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but the
country reopened its peaks to mountaineers last year.
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