Hilaree Nelson: Failure Frees Us From Perfection

4 min read

Hi, I’m Rick Barron, your host, and welcome to That’s Life, I Swear

Hilaree Nelson. Courtesy of BBC

Some defy the odds, no matter what. That said this episode is about the life of Hilaree Nelson. She was one of the world’s most accomplished ski mountaineers. With over 40 expeditions, she built an impressive record of first descents as a woman. “We can throw down just as hard as the men,” she said.

Let’s jump into this.

With some of the profiles I’ve shared with you over the months, Hilaree Nelson was an individual who sought to play with life not in a safe and comfortable manner. Instead, this well-renowned ski mountaineer made choices that instead of knowing where life’s road would take you, she took the road that wasn’t traveled and screwed what obstacles may have come her way.

Unfortunately, Hilaree did take a road where the obstacles won. 

Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison. Courtesy of New York Post

On Monday, September 26, 2022, Hilaree Nelson and her partner Jim Morrison climbed to the summit of 26,781-foot Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world. It was a moment Hilaree had long waited for to happen. With a deep breath, Hilaree began her descent on skis, down the mountain. As she moved downhill, she triggered a small avalanche along the way and was swept away approximately 5,000 feet down the south slope. 

Morrison, survived the avalanche. Unable to find Hilaree he headed back to base camp safely. After two days of searching in a helicopter, Morrison and a rescue crew located and discovered her body on Wednesday, September 28. Hilaree was only 49.

There are many ways to talk about this woman’s life. She lived on the edge and the risker the better. She was a mother of two boys, a partner, a teammate and a captain.

Ms. Nelson was a longtime resident of Telluride, Colo., where she frequently traipsed and trained in the surrounding San Juan Mountains and worked for years waiting tables. Her biggest adventures came after she became a mother to two boys.

Hilaree Nelson was born in Seattle on Dec. 13, 1972, to Stanley and Robin Nelson and grew up there. She and her siblings would ride a bus on weekends to ski at Stevens Pass in the Cascades. But the water was the family’s focus. Her mother refinished wood boats, and her father ran a family car dealership and took the family on weekslong sailing trips.

“We had tons of independence at 5 years old,” Ms. Nelson said a few years ago. “That was a huge part of learning how to be by myself, which is a surprisingly huge part of mountaineering.”

Hilaree Nelson and her two sons. Courtesy of: Outside Online

Besides Mr. Morrison, she is survived by her parents; her sons, Graydon and Quinn, now teenagers, from her marriage to Brian O’Neill, which ended in divorce; and her siblings.

After attending Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Ms. Nelson headed to France to hone her skiing and mountaineering skills over five winters near Chamonix.

FREE SOLO director Jimmy Chin & climber Alex Honnold. Courtesy of Keeping it Reel

She soon gained sponsorships, most notably with North Face, with a current roster of outdoor athletes, including the climber Alex Honnold and the explorer and filmmaker Jimmy Chin.

Hilaree’s life as a ski mountaineer was a collection of many first descents through more than 40 expeditions that took her to 16 different countries.  She was revered as the most prolific ski mountaineer of her generation. During her life she took on adventures only many of us can fantasize about in our heads. In 2012, Hilaree was the first female to link two 8000m peaks, Everest and Lhotse, in one 24-hour push!  

Morrison skiing down Lhotse. Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

Think about that for a moment, will you? Mt. Everest is 29,035 high and Lhotse is 27,940 high. People, this isn’t just a Sunday morning walk. The total feet of both mountains equal a little over 10 miles in the snow, up and down high cliffs. Are you getting it!?

The well-known climber Conrad Anker, an occasional expedition partner of Hilaree, said in a phone interview that the Lhotse expedition was as consequential a mountaineering feat as any in the past decade. 

While Ms. Nelson was considered a pioneer for women in adventure sports, her achievements proved without question, she was as strong as the strongest men, bar none.  

Just for kicks, in 2018, she returned to Lhotse a second time to ski from the summit. Yes, as one would do!

When Hilaree came down the Lhotse Mountain top she had no idea her status in the world of ski mountaineering, where pursuits are performed in remote high corners of the world, under dangerous and changing conditions, would place her at the top of her sport

Hilaree’s accomplishments were recognized everywhere. In 2017, Men’s Journal named her one of the 25 most adventurous women of the last 25 years.

In the same year, Hilaree and Jim Morrison, climbed Papsura , located in India, which stood at 21,165 feet. The mountain had another name, and quite fitting, The Peak of Evil. The climb was even sweeter because she and Jim were the first Americans to make the climb. 

Trust me when I say this was no easy climb. It was very icy, with almost no visibility. Nevertheless, her perseverance with this objective and ultimate success later earned her the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for 2018.

Would you believe that two weeks after Hilaree and Jim returned from India, they climbed the Cassin Ridge, a challenging route located in Denali National Park Reserve in Alaska. Then, yes, you guessed it, they both skied down the Messner Couloir.

For Hilaree, skiing was her oxygen. 

Hilaree once said and I quote:

“It’s so hard to put into words. I put my skis on while looking at the tallest peaks in the world. There’s not a soul on it. It’s airy and beautiful and intimidating and scary all at the same time.”

End quote. 

This was Hilaree. Regardless of how intimidating and scary the situation was before her, she found beauty and romance. She spent over 20 years crafting her skills. I guess that’s why so many of her admirers found that what she accomplished, she made it look so damn easy.

Guess you could say that was her signature on the sport. 

What can we learn from this story? What’s the take away?

Hilaree Nelson accomplishments need no gender qualifier. She was equal to men, if not better in my book. Her outlook on going to places to climb or ski, wasn’t taken up with time to talk about if it was possible. No, not Hilaree, she came to do it.

On Oct. 15, 2022 hundreds of people gathered in Telluride, Colo., to celebrate the life of renowned ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson.

Those in attendance was like a who’s-who from the world of climbing and adventure. Academy Award winner, Jimmy Chin for his 2018 documentary “Free Solo,” told many stories of his long friendship. Extreme skier, Kit Deslauriers, expressed how impressed she was about Hilaree’s bravery on numerous expeditions from Denali and Antarctica to the Himalayas. 

A few athletes who could not attend Hilaree’s burial expressed their thoughts on social media. 

There was one I thought hit the nail on the head about who Hilaree was. 

Emily Harrington. Courtesy of: Pinterest

Emily Harrington, a professional mountain climber, wrote this post on Instagram. I quote:

“Hilaree was a force to be remembered not for this accident or even the physical mountains she climbed and so expertly skied down, but for unapologetically paving the way for women in this space to be everything they want to be.” 

End quote

Well, there you go. That’s life, I swear.

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website that you can find on either Apple Podcasts/iTunes or Google Podcasts, for show notes calling out key pieces of content mentioned, and the episode transcript.

As always, I thank you for listening. 

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