Hilaree Nelson | In Memoriam

Remembering and honoring the life of American ski mountaineer, Hilaree Nelson.

On Wednesday, rescuers located the body of missing mountaineer Hilaree Nelson on the southern slope of 26,781-foot Manaslu, Nepal government officials confirmed. Nelson, 49, was skiing down from the peak’s true summit with Morrison when she fell off the mountain a few meters below the top, according to her outfitter Shangri-La Nepal Treks. Nelson was among the most accomplished ski mountaineers and alpinists on the planet. A champion extreme skier earlier in her career, she transitioned to ski mountaineering in the late 1990s and quickly became one of the strongest athletes in the sport. In 2002, she completed the first ski descent of five peaks in Mongolia’s Altai mountain range, and in 2005 she skied from the summit of 26,864-foot Cho Oyu without using supplemental oxygen. In 2012, Nelson became the first woman to link two 8,000-meter peaks—Mount Everest and Lhotse—in one 24-hour climb. She also was the first woman to ski the Makalu La Couloir on 27,825-foot Makalu. Read the full article here: Renowned Mountaineer Hilaree Nelson.