The body of American ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson was found Wednesday, two days after she fell off the world’s eighth-highest mountain.
Nelson, a 49-year-old mother of two, had been skiing down Mount Manaslu in Nepal when she disappeared into a crevasse near the peak Monday, according to expedition guides.
Her body was recovered early Wednesday and “she will be on her way home soon,” tour company Elite Exped said in a statement.
Nelson and her partner, Jim Morrison, had been skiing down the 26,775-foot summit together when she fell.
“I haven’t felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalay,” she wrote on Instagram Friday.
“These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways. The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick. I am challenged to find the peace and inspiration from the mountain when it’s been constantly shrouded in mist.”
Nelson was the first woman to climb two 8,000-meter, about 26,246 feet, peaks — Everest and Lhotse — in the span of 24 hours. She and Morrison were also the first to ski down Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest peak, at 27,940 feet.
———
