Sachindra Kumar Yadav, an official with the tourism department, said that Hilaree Nelson’s body was found on Wednesday and taken to a forensic lab in Kathmandu for an autopsy. Nelson, a well-known ski mountaineer from the US, died in Nepal while on an expedition, and the body was taken there for an autopsy.
The 49-year-old American, who had a famous career for over 20 years, had vanished below the top of Mount Manaslu in Nepal, which is the eighth-highest mountain in the world.
Nelson was a mother of two, and her partner, Jim Morrison, is also an experienced ski mountaineer, according to The North Face, which sponsors the American.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Morrison said that he and Nelson were skiing down from the top of Manaslu to meet up with their sherpas when the 49-year-old “started a small avalanche.”
She was swept off her feet and carried down a narrow snow slope, Morrison wrote in the post. After two days of searching for her by helicopter, he found her body on Wednesday.
“I did everything I could to find her, but I couldn’t go down the face because I wanted to find her alive and spend the rest of my life with her,” he wrote, calling Nelson “the most inspiring person in the world.”
“My loss is indescribable, and I am focused on her children and their next steps,” said Morrison, who called Nelson “my life partner, my love, my best friend, and my mountain partner.”
The North Face said in a statement that Nelson “had a spirit as big as the places she took us.” They also said that “she was a possibility.” We felt at home in the vastness of the world because of what she did.
Last week, Nelson posted on Instagram about the trip’s challenges and showed pictures from the trip.
“I haven’t felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on other trips into the thin air of the high Himalaya,” she wrote, bringing up the bad weather that climbers have been having to deal with in recent days.
“The last few weeks have made me stronger in new ways.”
Last week, Morrison also wrote on Instagram, “We went up high and tried hard, but the mountain said no. We left Camp 3 with our tails between our legs and skied down.
Nelson was an early member of the mountaineering community and a good example for climbers today.
In more than 40 expeditions around the world, she made first descents, and in 2018, she was named captain of The North Face Athlete Team.
In 2012, she was the first woman who was known to have climbed both Everest and the mountain next to it, Lhotse, in 24 hours.
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