As if she had a premonition. “I didn’t feel as sure-footed on Manaslu as I did on previous adventures in the thin air of the high Himalayas,” wrote world-renowned ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson on Instagram a few days ago. At that time, a failed summit attempt on the eight-thousander Manaslu in western Nepal was behind her. Too dangerous, Nelson and her partner Jim Morrison had decided – and turned around at around 6800 meters.
On their next attempt on Monday, the two Americans, who used bottled oxygen on their ascent, made it to the summit at 8,163 meters. There they started their planned ski descent. A little later Nelson fell to his death.
Nepalese climber dies in avalanche
On Wednesday A rescue team, which included Morrison, found the 49-year-old’s body on the southern flank of the mountain at around 6,000 meters. She was rescued and flown to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
What exactly happened on Monday, Morrison described on Instagram as follows: “I started first, after a few turns Hilaree followed and triggered a small avalanche. She was knocked off her feet and a narrow snow slope on the south side (opposite the ascent route) of the washed down the mountains.”
The 8163 meter high Manaslu in western Nepal, the eighth highest mountain on earth
A lot of fresh snow had fallen on Manaslu last week. On Nelson and Morrison’s summit day, a large avalanche had fallen at around 7,400 meters. A Nepalese mountain guide was killed and more than a dozen people were injured, some seriously. Most of them were Nepalese who wanted to bring equipment to the last high camp. And it could have been much worse: Several hundred mountaineers were on the climb, but still further down the mountain.
Small town of tents
Manaslu has been considered the “Everest of the fall climbing season” for several years. The customers of the commercial teams are queuing – also in the literal sense – to climb the eighth highest mountain on earth. The Nepalese government issued so-called “permits” for more than 400 foreign mountaineers this year – more than last spring for Mount Everest.
The Manaslu base camp at 4800 meters looks like a small town made of tents, around 1000 people are bustling there. Nelson and Morrison, both professional climbers, had wanted to get ahead of the crowds and climbed up earlier.
Spectacular ski runs
Nelson has been in the Guinness Book of Records since 2012. In 2012, she became the first woman in the world to climb two eight-thousanders within 24 hours (with a breathing mask): first on Mount Everest (8,849 meters), then on the neighboring Lhotse (8,516 meters), the fourth highest mountain on earth.
However, she made even more headlines with her extreme ski runs. In autumn 2018, for example, she and Morrison mastered the so-called “Dream Line” for the first time: from the summit through a narrow, 45 to 50 degree steep gully down to the “Western Qwm”, the Everest high valley. National Geographic magazine named Hilaree Nelson “Female Adventurer of the Year” in 2018. She leaves behind two sons, aged 15 and 13.