Industry News
After succumbing to her injuries from a 5,000-foot fall on Nepal’s 8,000-meter Manaslu, ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson’s body was laid to rest in a traditional Himalayan funeral in Kathmandu on Sunday. Her life and ski partner Jim Morrison, along with friends, Sherpas, and Buddhist monks were in attendance at the ceremony.
Prior to the ceremony, Morrison described how it would take place when he shared on social media:
Update from Kathmandu:
I’ve been uplifted and overwhelmed by all of the support across the 🌍 and thank you to all for that.
My team here has my back all the with @jibanghimire centering all the logistics to get us home. Hilaree’s brother Stan and @jimmychin have been at my side for the last couple days.
Tomorrow we will have a small ceremony here at the Swayambhunath Temple. Believed to be the oldest Stupa of its kind it dates back to 460 AD and is a holy place that Hilaree and I visited a month ago together. A small group of us will travel there with Hilaree’s body in a truck adorned with flowers and pictures of her from the hospital. A puja blessing and then her cremation will be performed with our Sherpa friends, monks and Lama.
We will collect her ashes and I will travel directly to the boys in Telluride. It should be a beautiful tribute which Hilaree’s family and I feel this is how she would want things performed.
The place name is essentially “self existent one” and how fitting for a woman of Hilaree’s existence. Her radiance will continue to affect us all.
Since his post, the ceremony has concluded and Morrison is now on his way back to Colorado with his partner’s ashes. The ski mountaineering world lost a legend, but Nelson’s spirit and the impact she had on the community at large will live on.
Wont make it to heaven worshiping false idols…