First woman to climb the world's two highest peaks in 24 hours: Hilaree Nelson

Six years later, she returned to Lhotse to make the first ski descent of the mountain and won the 'National Geographic Adventurer of the Year' award.

Nepal's most important source of income is mountain tourism, which is home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks.

The mother of two was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2018.

Hilaree Nelson (December 13, 1972 – September 26, 2022) was an American ski mountaineer. She became the first woman to summit two 8000-meter peaks (Everest and Lhotse) in one 24 hour push on May 25, 2012.

Ms. Nelson was a North Face sponsored athlete who had two children and lived in Colorado.

The North Face website reads about the mountaineer: “Having a career spanning two decades that included dozens of first descents with more than 40 expeditions to 16 different countries, Hilaree Nelson is the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation.”

On September 26, 2022, the lifeless body of the famous US mountaineer was found two days after it fell into an ice crevice near the summit of Manaslu mountain in Nepal.

The search for Hilaree Nelson was disrupted by bad weather. Nelson's body was found on Wednesday as a result of helicopter-assisted rescue efforts that began on Tuesday.

According to NBC's report, officials of Shangria La Trek, which organized the expedition, stated that the body of the famous mountaineer was transferred to Kathmandu.

Hilaree Nelson, 49, fell while skiing with her partner Jim Morrison from the 26,781-metre peak of Manaslu in the Nepal Himalayas, according to a local guide company.

Nelson grew up in Seattle and spent weekends at Stevens Pass in Washington's Cascades. After college, she became addicted to alpine skiing after visiting Chamonix, a French town at the foot of Europe's highest mountain, Mont Blanc.

In 2012, she became the first woman to climb the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, and neighboring Mount Lhotse in 24 hours. In 2018, she and Morrison returned to the region and became the first to ski the 27,940-metre summit of Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world. She said in a 2019 video about this feat: “It's hard to even get to the top of a 28,000-foot mountain, let alone getting your skis there, having the right conditions, and being able to climb.”

Just days before the fall, Nelson wrote on Instagram of the difficulties of her latest expedition.