Hilaree Nelson is missing after a devastating fall while trekking in the Himalayas. The famed mountaineer went missing on Nepal’s Manaslu peak after embarking on the trip on Monday morning.
Reports show that Nelson and her partner, Jim Morrison, scaled the peak of Manaslu mountain on Monday morning. She was announced missing after a call confirming that her ski blade skidded off (alongside Nelson) the other side of the peak. Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Treks confirmed the incident to Outside Magazine.
Ghimire also told the New York Times that weather delayed search efforts and “it takes three days to reach the incident site from base camp”.
A Nepali tourism department official told the Times that the effort to rescue Nelson may be unsuccessful.
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The accident
The accident occurred just after 11:30 A.M. Nepali time, shortly after the arrival of Nelson, her partner and guides who had climbed with the duo.
The Himalayan Times have reported that Nelson may have fallen into a crevasse just below the summit. One eye-witness has said that she fell roughly 80 feet into a vertical crevasse.
Rescue attempts:
Rescue attempts have been made but severely delayed by the bad weather conditions. Heavy snowfall over the past week has given rise to unstable conditions for climbers. A huge avalanche above Base Camp took the life of one and injured many more.
Both Nelson and her partner are renowned mountaineers. Nelson herself earned the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award in 2018 when she became the first to descend 27,940-foot Lhotse on skis. She is also a mother of two and lives in the state of Colorado.