Ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson dead after high-alpine fall

By: Downdays September 30, 2022

Renowned American ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson has died as a result of a fall while attempting to climb and ski the world’s eighth highest peak, Mount Manaslu in Nepal. She was 49 years old.

According to her partner, Jim Morrison, who was on the mountain with her, Nelson was swept some 1500 meters down the south face of Manaslu by an avalanche shortly after the pair summited the peak on Monday, September 26. Morrison was able to descend safely and organize a search and rescue operation, which recovered Nelson’s body two days later at an elevation of around 6700 meters.

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A post shared by Jim Morrison (@jimwmorrison)

Treacherous conditions appeared to prevail on Manaslu this week. On the same day as Nelson’s fall, a separate avalanche at a lower elevation killed a guide and injured other climbers.

“I haven’t felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya,” Nelson posted last week. “These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways.”

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A post shared by Hilaree Nelson (@hilareenelson)

A pioneering athlete and revered veteran, Nelson was a monumental figure in the ski mountaineering world. According to her longtime sponsor The North Face, her accolades included “dozens of first descents through more than 40 expeditions to 16 different countries.”

A native of Seattle, Washington, Nelson spent several years ski-bumming in Chamonix in the 1990s, where her passion for alpinism flourished. That passion soon carried her around the world on increasingly ambitious expeditions, including a dual summit of Everest and Lhotse within 24 hours (the first woman to do so) and the first ski descent of Lohtse.

Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison´s 2018 first descent of Lohtse is remembered as one of the most audacious feats of high-alpine skiing ever performed.

“Hilaree Nelson is regarded as the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation,” states her entry on The North Face website.

Shortly after the news of her death, the brand added an additional statement to her athlete page:

“Hilaree Nelson held a spirit as big as the places she led us to. She embodied possibility. Her adventures made us feel at home in the vastness of the world.”

The mother of two will be sorely missed by her family as well as the entire ski community, as evidenced by an outpouring of online tributes from her many friends and fans around the globe.