Hilaree Nelson, missing US Skier in Nepal, found dead
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Renowned mountaineer Hilaree Nelson was found dead on Nepal's Manaslu after disappearing on the mountain for two days.
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Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison (Instagram)
A disappeared US ski mountaineer lost on Nepal's Manaslu peak has been found on Wednesday, two days after her disappearance.
Hilaree Nelson went missing while skiing down the Himalayan peak, after having successfully reached the summit with her partner, Jim Morrison, earlier on Monday.
Morrison, who oversaw the search efforts, had departed in a chopper early on Wednesday to continue the search for her.
"The search team that left this morning on a helicopter spotted her body and is bringing her back," Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Trek, which organized the expedition, told AFP.
The corpse was transported to the peak's base camp, according to Ghimire, and would then be flown to Kathmandu.
The North Face, Nelson's sponsor, deemed the 49-year-old "the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation."
She was the first woman to conquer Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, and the nearby Lhotse peak within a 24-hour period 10 years ago.
She returned to Lhotse in 2018 and made the mountain's first ski descent, earning her the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year title.
During her last climb, Nelson wrote on Instagram than "These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways."
She added that "I haven't felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya."
For the 404 climbers who have committed to attempting to reach the top of Manaslu this year, the constant rain and snow have been a problem.
Read more: Nepali mountaineer becomes first to climb world's 8,000m peaks twice
