US mountaineer Hilaree Nelson's body found after avalanche on peak in Nepal
KATHMANDU - The body of an American mountaineer whose daring achievements brought her acclaim among some of the world's most elite climbers was found on Wednesday on a peak in Nepal, two days after she went missing, a government official said.
Ms Hilaree Nelson, 49, and her romantic and climbing partner, Mr Jim Morrison, were attempting to ski down Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest peak, on Monday. An avalanche apparently blew her off a cliff onto the south face of the mountain, opposite of their intended route of descent, said Mr Sachindra Yadav, an expedition liaison officer from the Gorkha district, which includes Manaslu.
"Her body has been brought to Kathmandu for autopsy. It's intact but covered with snow," Mr Yadav said.
Ms Nelson and Mr Morrison travelled to Nepal earlier this month for their trek up Manaslu. In 2018, they successfully descended by ski from Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest mountain, which straddles Nepal and Tibet.
When she disappeared on Monday, shortly after the couple began their descent from Manaslu's 8,163m peak, guides on her expedition said they believed she had fallen into a crevasse. Mr Morrison skied to base camp for help, but poor weather conditions delayed a helicopter survey and rescue mission until Tuesday morning.
During an initial survey, Mr Morrison and others on the mission noticed bright objects that looked like a ski glove or another article of clothing.
A team of rescuers returned early Wednesday with binoculars and other detection equipment. Mr Morrison and two others searched the ground area and found Ms Nelson's body, Mr Yadav said.
The death underscores the extreme risks taken by adventurers and the local Nepali guides who support them in climbing some of the world's highest - and deadliest - peaks.
Ms Nelson was among a slew of high-profile alpinists who have died in recent years pursuing their sport. The Swiss climber Ueli Steck died in 2017 while attempting to reach Everest's peak on a narrow and steep approach without supplemental oxygen.
Mr Marc-Andre Leclerc, a 25-year-old Canadian, died in 2018 along with his climbing partner while establishing a new route up the north face of the Mendenhall Towers in Alaska.
Three members of a climbing team sponsored by the North Face clothing company - the American Jess Roskelley and the Austrians David Lama and Hansjorg Auer - died in an avalanche in 2019 in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.
Ms Nelson grew up climbing mountains near Seattle and lived with her two children near Telluride, Colorado. She distinguished herself with dozens of first ski descents through more than 40 expeditions to 16 different countries, according to North Face, her sponsor, which called her "the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation".
Ms Nelson's and Morrison's first major ski mountaineering expedition together was in 2017, when they travelled to the Indian Himalayas to attempt the first ski descent of Papsura, a 6,451m mountain known as the Peak of Evil.
They did it, completing "an icy, 3,000-foot, 60-degree virgin ski descent with almost no visibility", according to North Face.
Two weeks after returning to the United States, they climbed the Cassin Ridge, a highly technical route on Denali in Alaska, skiing down the mountain's Messner face in what has been lauded as one of North America's top ski mountaineering feats.
Mountaineering experts said that feat had redeemed Ms Nelson in the eyes of the alpinist community after she led a failed North Face expedition in 2014 to climb Hkakabo Razi, Myanmar's tallest mountain at 5,881m. Ms Nelson and the other five climbers, who were making a documentary, nearly lost their lives after they ran out of food.
This week, Ms Nelson and Mr Morrison were pushing the limits again on Manaslu, regarded among mountain researchers and climbers as among the more dangerous of the world's 14 8,000m peaks because of its propensity for avalanches.
On Monday, an avalanche lower down on Manaslu killed a Sherpa guide and injured 13 others on a separate climbing expedition.
Dozens of people have died over the hundreds of recorded attempts to reach Manaslu's summit. In 2012, an avalanche on the mountain killed nine climbers.
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