The body of famed American ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson was found Wednesday, two days after she went missing when falling off the peak of Mount Manaslu in Nepal.
Nelson’s body was found near Larke Peak on the south face of the world’s eighth-tallest mountain, according to the Himalayan Times.
She slipped and fell about 80 feet near the summit and into a 2,000-foot gap in the ice known as a crevasse on Monday, according to an eyewitness who spoke to the Himalayan newspaper.
“The duo reached the true summit of Manaslu at 11.30 A.M. local time. And about 15 minute laters I got a call from our staff at Base Camp that her ski blade skidded off and [she] fell off the other side of the peak,” Jiban Ghimire, managing director of the expedition company Shangri-La Nepal Trek, told Outside magazine.
She was with her partner Jim Morrison, during the trip. He returned safely to camp. Ms. Nelson, 49, was the mother of two and lived in Telluride, Colorado.
In 2018, Ms. Nelson and Mr. Morrison were the first to ski down Mount Lhotse — the world’s fourth-tallest mountain. She earned the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award for her efforts.
Ms. Nelson also became the first woman to summit Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, and its neighboring peak Lhotse within a 24-hour period in 2012.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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