The body of top US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson was recovered on Wednesday and her boyfriend Jim Morrison took to Instagram to commemorate her after carrying her body from a rescue helicopter.
‘There are no words to describe the love for this woman, my life partner, my lover, my best friend, and my mountain partner,’ Morrison began. ‘She has been the beacon of light in my life day in and day out.’
Nelson, a mother of two teenage boys, slipped and died two days ago while skiing down the world’s eighth-highest mountain, after a successful summit on Nepal’s Manaslu peak with her partner Jim Morrison on Monday.
Morrison continued the Instagram post by recounting what happened that fateful day: ‘I skied first and after a few turns Hilaree followed and started a small avalanche. She was swept off her feet and carried down a narrow snow slope down the south side (opposite from climbing route) of the mountain over 5000’.’
He also said ‘I did everything I could to locate her but was unable to go down the face as I hoped to find her alive and live my life with her.’
‘I found her body… today at 10:30 am. I’m in Kathmandu with her and her spirit. My loss is indescribable and I am focused on her children and their steps forward,’ said Morrison.
Jim Morrison (left) is seen carrying US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson’s body in a yellow body bag from a rescue helicopter that found her on Wednesday morning
Nelson is pictured right with her partner Morrison five days before she went missing. A search team retrieved the mountaineer’s body from a crevice after she fell when skiing down the slopes of Nepal’s Manaslu peak
Pictured: Morrison (left) seeing his partner’s body arrive off the rescue chopper
He also called her ‘the most inspiring person in life’ and concluded with ‘Pray for her family and community which is broadly stretched across our planet. I’m devastated by the loss of her.’
Morrison, who previously lost his wife and their two young children in a 2011 plane crash, led the search operations and had left Wednesday morning on a helicopter to resume efforts to locate her.
He was seen carrying her body out of a rescue chopper and loading it onto a local mortuary unit van.
‘The search team that left this morning on a helicopter spotted her body,’ Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Trek, which organized the expedition, told AFP. Ghimire added that the body was brought to the peak’s base camp and will later be flown to Kathmandu.
Officials noted that the body was ‘badly damaged,’ after it took more than an hour to retrieve it from the snow.
Nelson, 49, is described by her sponsor, The North Face, as ‘the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation’.
Morrison loaded his partner’s body onto a local mortuary unit van
The body of Nelson, 49, an ambassador for North Face, was taken away by officials
Nelson and Morrison, pictured campaigning for governments to take action on climate change
A rescue helicopter spotted Nelson’s body on Wednesday morning, two days after she went missing on the slopes of Nepal’s Manaslu peak
A map showing the discovery of Nelson’s body is shown. The 45-year-old North Face athlete was reported missing after descending from the true summit of 8,613 meter Manaslu with her partner Jim Morrison earlier this week
Nelson was called ‘the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation’
A decade ago, she became the first woman to summit both the highest mountain in the world, Everest, and the adjacent Lhotse peak within the span of 24 hours.
She was also recognized as a National Geographic adventurer of the year in 2018 after summiting and skiing down Papsura, known as the Peak of Evil, in India and then doing the same on Denali in Alaska.
In an Instagram post last week, Nelson said her latest climb had been deeply challenging because of ‘incessant rain’ and dangerous conditions.
‘I haven’t felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya,’ Nelson wrote in a post on Thursday.
‘These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways.’
Mountaineers and well-wishers had earlier shared messages of support on social media, hoping for Nelson’s safe return.
‘Let’s pray for Hilaree,’ fellow The North Face athlete Fernanda Maciel, currently at the Manaslu base camp, wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.
Constant rain and snow have been a challenge for the 404 paying climbers attempting to reach the summit of Manaslu this year.
She is survived by her sons Quinn, 15, and 13-year-old Graydon in Telluride, Colorado. The boys were living with Nelson’s ex-husband while she was away.
Nelson (center) was the mother of two boys, Quinn, 15 (right), and 13-year-old Graydon (left)
The boys joined Nelson and Morrison on ski trips. The four are pictured with a Santa Claus during an undated Christmas
The boys were living with Nelson’s ex-husband while she was away. Pictured: (L-R) Graydon, Nelson, Quinn and Morrison together on a boat in lake as the youngest son carries their dog in his arms
Nelson is pictured in the Himalayas on a previous trip. The death of Nelson was among the first confirmed casualties of the autumn climbing season in Nepal
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks and foreign climbers who flock to its mountains are a major source of revenue for the country. Nelson and Morrison were avid mountain climbers who enjoyed treks around the world
Tributes were already arriving for the mountaineer soon after her body was discovered.
‘You were loved and admired. What a legacy you’re leaving behind. Prayers for your family,’ said Shruti Sharma on social media.
‘It is truly a necessity to have a passion as a compass in life,’ said another admirer, quoting the skier.
The search for the famous skier, which her boyfriend Morrison had been leading since Monday, has now come to an end.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Morrison described how he was wracked with grief following the death of his wife and children, and buried himself in mountaineering after contemplating suicide.
He found new love with Nelson after meeting her on a 2013 expedition to climb Malaku, where he broke down in a tent at base camp and shared his story of personal tragedy.
On the same day as Nelson’s accident, an avalanche hit between Camps 3 and 4 on the 26,781-foot mountain, killing Nepali climber Anup Rai and injuring a dozen others who were later rescued.
The deaths of Nelson and Rai are the first confirmed casualties of the autumn climbing season in Nepal.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks and foreign climbers who flock to its mountains are a major source of revenue for the country.
The industry was almost completely shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but the country reopened its peaks to mountaineers last year.
The mountaineer’s last post in Instagram was a tribute to public spaces, with Hilaree sharing photos of her ‘own backyard’
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