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Renowned US ski mountaineer goes missing in Nepal, accident suspected: Report
Hilaree Nelson has been described as "the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation".
Renowned US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson went missing in Nepal on Monday after she was skiing down Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world, reports have said. Nelson went missing the same day an avalanche hit the peak she had been traversing and killed a Nepali climber. The incident is reportedly said to have taken place while Nelson was skiing down after having successfully summited Manaslu with her partner Jim Morrison.
"She had an accident yesterday as she was descending shortly after her summit. We are trying to get clarity on what happened," news agency AFP quoted an official of the trek which had organised the expedition, as saying.
The Nepal government said that an avalanche hit Camps 3 and 4 on the 8,163-metre (26,781-foot) mountain on Monday and killed a Nepali climber alongside injuring a dozen others. The rescue operation has been posing a major challenge due to bad weather amid constant rain and snow.
However, as the weather improved on Tuesday, Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Treks said a helicopter has been sent to the site of Nelson's accident.
Morrison -- who skied with Nelson -- is safe and has been accompanying the search and rescue team, Ghimire added.
"We are in touch with Hilaree's family and supporting search and rescue efforts in every way we can," the trekking company said on Tuesday.
Nelson in an Instagram post on Thursday said: "I haven't felt as sure-footed on Manaslu as I have on past adventures into the thin atmosphere of the high Himalaya," “These past weeks have tested my resilience in new ways.”
The 49-year-old has been described as "the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation". In 2012, she became the first woman to summit the highest mountain in the world, Everest, and its adjacent Lhotse within 24 hours.
Six years later, she returned to Lhotse and made the first ski descent of the mountain, which earned her the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award.
Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks and foreign climbers that flock to its mountains are a major source of revenue for the country.
(With AFP inputs)
