Mountaineering legend Hilaree Nelson goes missing in the Himalayas

Hilaree Nelson, a famous American mountaineer, disappeared on Mount Manaslu, Nepal, the day an avalanche killed a Nepalese climber, expedition organizers and officials said on Tuesday.

Nelson began the descent on skis of this Himalayan mountain after successfully climbing, with his companion Jim Morrison, the 8,163 meters of Manaslu on Monday, which makes this mountain the eighth highest in the world.

“She had an accident yesterday on her way down, shortly after her ascent.

We are trying to shed some light on what happened,” Jiban Ghimire, of Shangri-La Nepal Treks, who organized the expedition, told AFP.

That same day, an avalanche hit Manaslu, killing a Nepalese climber and injuring a dozen people, according to the government's tourism department.

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The North Face, which sponsors Nelson, confirmed his disappearance.

"We are in contact with Hilaree's family and are supporting search and rescue efforts in any way we can," the company said in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

The bad weather conditions - constant snow and rain - have been a challenge for the climbers engaged in the ascent of this peak.

But also for the rescuers, who were unable to fly their helicopters to locate the victims.

Jiban Ghimire said conditions had improved on Tuesday, and a helicopter was heading to the crash site where Hilaree Nelson disappeared.

"I have never felt so sure of myself on Manaslu (this time, editor's note) than during my past adventures in the tenuous atmosphere of the high Himalayas", she said Thursday, in an Instagram post.

"The past few weeks have tested my resilience in unprecedented ways."

The 49-year-old mountaineer's career spans two decades and she is described as "the most prolific female ski mountaineer of her generation" by North Face.

In 2012, she was the first woman to reach the summit of Everest, the highest mountain in the world, and the neighboring mountain of Lhotse in 24 hours.

Nepal is home to eight of the fourteen highest peaks in the world and the foreign climbers who flock to climb its mountains are a major source of income for the country.