Drama in the Himalayas: record ski mountaineer and mother of two missing after falling into a crevasse

Created: 09/28/2022, 04:46

By: Martina Lippl

The renowned American Hilaree Nelson conquered Mount Everest and Lhotse within 24 hours in 2012.

Now the record ski mountaineer in the Himalayas is missing.

Kathmandu - It's raining and snowing - the bad weather would hamper the rescue work with two helicopters, said a spokesman for the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism, as reported by the dpa news agency.

The search for US skier Hilaree Nelson (49) on Mount Manaslu in the Himalayas is making little progress.

Hilaree Nelson (49) missing in the Himalayas – ski mountaineer fell into a crevasse

The 49-year-old has been missing on Manaslu (8,163 meters) since Monday after successfully climbing the world's eighth highest mountain with her partner Jim Morrison.

Hilaree Nelson skied down the mountain and then fell into a crevasse, said an employee of the trekking company Shangri-la Nepal Trek, which organized the expedition.

"She had an accident yesterday," Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Treks, which organized the expedition, told AFP on Tuesday, according to Britain's

.

"We're trying to get some clarity on what happened."

US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson (49) missing in the Himalayas on Manaslu (archive photos).

© Niranjan Shrestha/AP/dpa/imago

Her partner Jim Morrison has reached base camp safely and is accompanying the search and rescue team.

, the mountaineering duo planned to descend the sharp knife ridge in search of one of the most dangerous vertical falls in the world

.

"I didn't feel as safe on Manaslu as on previous adventures in the thin atmosphere of the high Himalayas," Nelson wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday.

"The last few weeks have tested my resilience in a new way." Her 68,800 followers are now hoping for good news.

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Record ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson (49) missing in the Himalayas

Hilaree Nelson, mother of two, became the first woman to scale Mount Everest and neighboring Mount Lhotse in less than 24 hours in May 2012.

In 2018, she returned to Lhotse and completed the mountain's first ski descent.

Nelson has been missing from Mount Manaslu since Monday.

An avalanche fell below the crevasse on the same day, killing a Nepalese climber on Manaslu.

However, according to current information, there should be no connection with the accident involving the American.

At least one Nepalese Sherpa mountain guide was killed in the avalanche and 14 other Sherpas were injured, some seriously.

They had brought luggage from a mountaineering group to a high-altitude camp when they were hit by the avalanche.

In the spring of 2022, a plane crashed in the Himalayas.

Two Germans were among the fatalities.