The body of a famed U.S. ski mountaineer was discovered Wednesday in Nepal, two days after she fell off the world's eighth-highest mountain near its peak.
Hilaree Nelson, 49, had been skiing down from the summit of Mount Manaslu with her partner Jim Morrison, a celebrated extreme skiier, when she fell off the Himalayan mountain on Monday.
The teams were able to renew their search after bad weather hampered rescue efforts. Nelson's body was found and retrieved on Wednesday, a spokesman for Shangri-La Nepal Trek, the company that organized the expedition, told NBC News.
Nelson's body was transported to Kathmandu, according to a spokesman.
The co-founder of Elite Exped and mountaineer Nims Purja said in an Instagram post that the company's team had successfully recovered Nelson's body. They said she would be on her way home soon. The North Face, the outdoor clothing and equipment company that sponsored Nelson, did not.
A statement on Monday was made by The North Face, which confirmed that Nelson had gone missing below the summit of Mt. The company said it was in touch with her family and that it supports search and rescue efforts in every way possible. Nelson, from Telluride, Colorado, and Morrison, from Tahoe, California, are extreme skiers who summited Mount Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest in 2018.
On its website, The North Face has previously described Nelson as the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation, noting that she was the first female to link two 8000 m peaks, Everest and Lhotse, in a 24 hour push. Nelson was a mother of two, according to the company.
In her last Instagram post last week, Nelson described her difficulties in her latest climb, saying she hadn't felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I had in the past adventure into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalayas. She wrote that these past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways. The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick. I am challenged to find the peace and inspiration from the mountain when it has been shrouded in mist. She described happier experiences, describing skiing down to base camp with Morrison in a journey full of shenanigans rappelling over seracs with our skis on, posing for pictures with climbers going uphill. We got back to BC soaking wet, in the pouring rain, just in time for a hearty BC dinner. Smiling and laughing felt amazing! On Monday, an avalanche at a lower elevation on Mount Manaslu swept away several climbers, killing a Nepali guide and injuring others.
All of the climbers caught in the avalanche were accounted for, with some of the injured flown to Kathmandu and treated in hospitals.
The government of Nepal has permits for over 500 climbers to try to scale high mountain peaks during the autumn season, with most of them setting their sights on Mount Manaslu.