The famous American mountaineer Hilaree Nelson has just disappeared on Mount Manaslu (Nepal), the day an avalanche killed a Nepalese climber, the organizers of the expedition announced on Tuesday. She began the ski descent of this Himalayan mountain after successfully climbing the 8,163-meter Manaslu mountain with her companion Jim Morrison 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,” says Jiban Ghimire of Shangri-La Nepal Treks, who organized the expedition.
His sponsor The North Face confirms his disappearance
That same day, an avalanche hit Manaslu, killing a Nepalese climber and injuring a dozen people, according to the government’s tourism department. The North Face, which sponsors Nelson, has 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 assured that the conditions had improved on Tuesday, and that a helicopter was heading for the site of the accident, where Hilaree Nelson disappeared.
She reached the summit of Everest in twenty-four hours.
“I have never felt so sure of myself on Manaslu than during my past adventures in the tenuous atmosphere of the high Himalayas, she confided 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 became the first woman to summit Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, and nearby Lhotse in twenty-four hours. Nepal is home to eight of the fourteen highest peaks in the world and foreign mountaineers, who flock to climb its mountains, are a major source of income for the country.