This American was one of the most acclaimed outdoor adventure athletes in the world. She was mostly known as a ski mountaineer and captured many "firsts." Highly skilled and, from all accounts, a kind person with extraordinary drive.
It appears she was skiing down after reaching an almost (mind blowing) 27K ft summit, kicked off a small avalanche and was swept over the side. She was a mother of two.
Something that strikes me though.
In a time when women are rightfully fighting for and achieving certain equities, the women who are already out there working on the exact same playing field as men, and often "beating" them, aren't held up as examples for young women and girls. They encompass drive, dedication, physical and mental fitness and skill. It doesn't make sense to me that these types of women aren't role models. Even for those who will never see a big mountain in their lives. Instead, they're fed the Kardashians. I don't get it.
I was out backpacking last week in the Sierra and ran across five solo hikers. Four of them were women. I was stoked to see that.
So Mom's? If your girls want to climb trees and play in the dirt, encourage them. They can do it just as well as the boys. Often better.
(BBC) A search team in Nepal has recovered the body of famous US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson from near the summit of Mount Manaslu in the Himalayas.
Nelson, 49, was descending the world's eighth highest summit with her partner when she went missing on Monday.
Rescuers found her body on the south face of the 8,163m (26,781ft) peak on Wednesday. Earlier reports said she had fallen into a crevasse in a glacier.
Nelson was regarded as one of the finest mountaineers of her generation.
In 2018, she and her partner Jim Morrison became the first people to ski down Mount Lhotse in Nepal, the world's fourth-highest peak.
She is also the first woman to climb both the world's highest mountain, Everest, and Lhotse, which is adjacent, in a single 24-hour period.
Thanks for sharing that. I sort of always looked to climbers and mountaineers as rock stars. Probably weird for a guy who has spent most of his life at sea level. But they were the athletes I idolized. More so than team sports, which never really registered for me. I never really understood why they never got mainstream publicity. Especially some of the pioneering female climbers who kicked ass in my lifetime like Kaltenbrunner. I could never climb shit. I have the conditioning of a soft shell turtle when it comes to climbing. But the stories of climbers always struck me and seemed to have something I could bring into life.
@CopperCicada Right on. Great comment. And I agree. I was an athlete and connected more to other sports but as I got older, and really got in to backpacking and hiking, I also looked to the top echalon of outdoor athletes as those to admire. I don't climb, because I know I don't have what it takes, but it doesn't matter. It's about the will to succeed and ability to suffer while doing it. I just find those traits admirable and inspirational.
