Hilaree Nelson, a famed ski mountaineer and Colorado College alum, has been reported missing on 26,781-foot Mount Manaslu in Nepal.
Nepalese rescuers were searching by helicopter Tuesday for Nelson, who was skiing down Manaslu on Monday with her partner Jim Morrison when reports say she fell. Also Monday, an avalanche at a lower elevation on Manaslu swept several climbers, killing a Nepali guide and injuring others.
While it was initially reported that Nelson had fallen into a 75-foot crevasse, varying accounts are now emerging.
According to an article published by Everest Chronicle that cited Nelson's outfitter, Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Trek, Nelson's ski blade "skidded off" a few yards below the peak, resulting in a potentially big fall that they estimate could have been up to 3,000 feet.
Another account that comes from eyewitness reports suggests a significant avalanche that took place on the mountain around the same time may have been a factor in Nelson's fall, with her partner, Jim Morrison, able to escape the debris.
A helicopter conducted a search for Nelson throughout the day on the south slope of the mountain, with plans to continue the search Wednesday.
Nelson, 49, who lives in Telluride, and Morrison, from Tahoe, Calif., are extreme skiers who summited Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest peak, in 2018.
“When she gets her mind wrapped around doing something like this, she’s extremely willing to suffer and put her head down,” Morrison told The Gazette in 2018.
Growing up in Washington state, Nelson lived on a boat with her parents for weeks, unusual excursions all part of a family mystery that became clearer to her over the years.
“I grew up in a household that had a lot of depression issues,” she says. “And it affected me really deeply, and it scared me I was going to be that way.”
The slopes, the backcountry of the Cascades, became an ultimate defense. “I chose the outdoors as my medicine,” she said in 2018.
She attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, spending her time away from studies cultivating her climbing skills on the red rocks in Garden of the Gods.
After graduating in 1996, she moved to France’s Chamonix Valley, taking turns with some of the most daring high-altitude seekers alive. She strung together expeditions through fearsome ranges in Russia, India and South America. She rose fast through the ranks, winning the Women’s Extreme Skiing Championships. The North Face made her a star of its team.
In 2000, amid her soaring career, she met the man she would marry and later divorce, having her children Quinn and Grayden.
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