A US skier’s body was recovered Wednesday on the world’s eight-highest peak in the Himalayas after she fell while skiing with her partner.
Hilaree Nelson, 49, was discovered on the south side of Mount Manaslu in Nepal. Partner Jim Morrison greeted her body at a Kathmandu hospital.
“There are no words to describe the love for this woman, my life partner, my lover, my best friend, and my mountain partner,” he wrote on Instagram shortly later.
Morrison recalled the moment Nelson was “swept off her feet” by a small avalanche and how he “did everything…to locate her but was unable to go down the face as I hoped to find her alive and live my life with her.”
The Seattle native was hailed as the most prolific skier of her generation and the first woman to be named North Face Global Athletic team captain.
“Hilaree Nelson held a spirit as big as the places she led us,” North Face said in a statement. “She embodied possibility. Her adventures made us feel at home in the vastness of the world.”
