Hilaree Nelson Missing on Manaslu

[James]

^ what I was thinking too but ...


(1:01sec in) "ski from the summit of the actual summit ... which has been redetermined and it is up on a very steep and sharp angled ridge"

That was good, thanks for posting. So it’s squeeze time for the 400 permits on the mountain. Plus sherpas.
It certainly sounds like they tried to ski from the true summit. It goes along with Morrison’s saying they transitioned to skis very quickly after reaching the true summit. Climbing back would be 30-40 min maybe at that altitude?
Also in that it has an Instagram post of hers.-

————————-
…The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick. I am challenged to find the peace and inspiration from the mountain when it’s been constantly shrouded in mist. Yesterday we ended our summit bid when we decided it was too dangerous to move from C3 to C4.

We subsequently decided to ski down from C3 knowing that would mean carrying our skis all the way back up the mountain again if, big if here, we try again for a summit. It was the best thing we could’ve done.
.
As soon as I made the first turn in the sticky hot pow, in a total white out, all the weight and seriousness that had been plaguing me this whole trip faded to the background…
———————-September 22, 2022

[Edit - She’s talking about Camp 3 to Camp 4. Not the summit ridge. Pretty sure]
So c4 would be the true summit

AAC Publications - The 8000-er Mess

This flag-draped rock pile on Manaslu is just below the point where most climbers stop their ascent—a point about 20 meters before the actual sum...

publications.americanalpineclub.org

^ Manaslu section at least is worth a read
(You can also see why Jackson Groves’s drone shots are so incredible. You get a clear view of the summit ridge. In most photos it’s very compressed visually)

Really kind of nuts to try to ski c4 to c3
unroped.

Allison Hargreaves was vilified for climbing mountains in the 90’s. She was blown off the mountain and killed on K2 in 1995. Her young son at the time was killed 24 years later climbing Nanga Parabat.

The Jackson’s photos posted were from last Sept.-

 

[LiquidFeet]

It's hard to imagine how two people would ski down from that ridge even in the best of weather conditions. It looks like they would set off avalanches no matter what line they chose to ski.

Can someone explain which direction they would go that might be skiable?

 

[cantunamunch]

It's hard to imagine how two people would ski down from that ridge even in the best of weather conditions. It looks like they would set off avalanches no matter what line they chose to ski.

Yes. And so any line they choose will be across the hill as much as down it, to manage the slough.

One of the acknowledged tricks is to be only just slower than, and lateral to, your own slough - since braking yourself too much sets off a bigger slide.

Can someone explain which direction they would go that might be skiable?

I suspect the overall line has more to do with what the rocks below the photo look like. We don't really have enough information on what's below, but I suspect they would have worked their way towards the drone.

 

[scott43]

It's hard to imagine how two people would ski down from that ridge even in the best of weather conditions. It looks like they would set off avalanches no matter what line they chose to ski.

Can someone explain which direction they would go that might be skiable?

At 8,000 m...

 

[James]

Can someone explain which line they would take which would be potentially skiable?

No.

Probably more snow this year, but you’re descending on skis, maybe side stepping up for a bit too.

Afaik, they’re not descending either of those faces. They’re going back down from where the climbers are coming from. -So on the top photo, to the left.
For one thing, the camps are that way. Easy to gorget one is There’s nothing on the backside, if it was even skiable or climbable.

Not sure what the plan was as to how far to ski down. I think it all hinged on going from the true summit.

 

[Rod9301]

Truthfully...any of us who don't engage in such high stakes activity will never be able to fully understand. Only those that are in that arena. I watch some of the footage of these peaks and see them climbing straight up 50 degree faces and my palms get sweaty. The amount of courage, planning, focus and ability to compartmentalize the risk is remarkable and nearly superhuman. Beating the odds is a numbers game and you don't always win. It makes it extra sad when someone so accomplished does succumb to the odds. She clearly knew what she was doing and accepted those risks. Her accomplishments are remarkable.

And climbing 50 degree slopes in snow you want to ski is the least stressful, unless you think about skiing it down.

Skiing 50 degree stuff is stressful. And it's always the first two turns that are the worst.

And if it's long, it adds to the stress.

I have friends that say "it doesn't matter how long a steep slope is, i never get scared in a long steep slope vs one that's 100 ft."
To this i say, it's because you've never been on a 2, 000 ft 50 degrees slope.

 

[Rod9301]

That was good, thanks for posting. So it’s squeeze time for the 400 permits on the mountain. Plus sherpas.
It certainly sounds like they tried to ski from the true summit. It goes along with Morrison’s saying they transitioned to skis very quickly after reaching the true summit. Climbing back would be 30-40 min maybe at that altitude?
Also in that it has an Instagram post of hers.-

————————-
…The constant monsoon with its incessant rain and humidity has made me hopelessly homesick. I am challenged to find the peace and inspiration from the mountain when it’s been constantly shrouded in mist. Yesterday we ended our summit bid when we decided it was too dangerous to move from C3 to C4.

We subsequently decided to ski down from C3 knowing that would mean carrying our skis all the way back up the mountain again if, big if here, we try again for a summit. It was the best thing we could’ve done.
.
As soon as I made the first turn in the sticky hot pow, in a total white out, all the weight and seriousness that had been plaguing me this whole trip faded to the background…
———————-September 22, 2022

[Edit - She’s talking about Camp 3 to Camp 4. Not the summit ridge. Pretty sure]
So c4 would be the true summit
View attachment 179555

AAC Publications - The 8000-er Mess

This flag-draped rock pile on Manaslu is just below the point where most climbers stop their ascent—a point about 20 meters before the actual sum...

publications.americanalpineclub.org

^ Manaslu section at least is worth a read
(You can also see why Jackson Groves’s drone shots are so incredible. You get a clear view of the summit ridge. In most photos it’s very compressed visually)

Really kind of nuts to try to ski c4 to c3
unroped.

Allison Hargreaves was vilified for climbing mountains in the 90’s. She was blown off the mountain and killed on K2 in 1995. Her young son at the time was killed 24 years later climbing Nanga Parabat.

The Jackson’s photos posted were from last Sept.-

I don't think that skiing roped would be any safer. Except now you would have two people at risk.
As i wrote this, I'm thinking of skiing roped on a glacier. Similar, the only difference is that glaciers are pretty low angle. I don't know how steep the ridge was, but if it was more than 40 degrees, it would've hard to arrest the skier that fell. A lot more so if the fallen skier was behind.

On a glacier, most of the time it's the lower skier that falls in a crevasse.

 

[Tricia]

There is another avalanche on Manaslu
As Chris Davenport says in his tweet, its been a rough season on that mountain.

 

[crgildart]

It's hard to imagine how two people would ski down from that ridge even in the best of weather conditions. It looks like they would set off avalanches no matter what line they chose to ski.

Can someone explain which direction they would go that might be skiable?

It seems to me that pushing that exact envelope right to the edge of steep with light fluffy snow to the point where it ALMOST slides or especially has little slides all around but doesn't totally break loose is the goal of elite powder skiing.. As long as people are flirting with that rush this stuff is more likely to happen regardless of how scientific we get about evaluating the conditions as safe enough to go for it.

 

[James]

I don't think that skiing roped would be any safer. Except now you would have two people at risk.
As i wrote this, I'm thinking of skiing roped on a glacier. Similar, the only difference is that glaciers are pretty low angle. I don't know how steep the ridge was, but if it was more than 40 degrees, it would've hard to arrest the skier that fell. A lot more so if the fallen skier was behind.

On a glacier, most of the time it's the lower skier that falls in a crevasse.

A fixed rope you’re attached to, or on belay. They climb up by using fixing ropes. They’re trying to get 400 people to the top. But fixing a rope to the c4 summit I don’t think is ever done. It would also be dangerous to try and get dozens of people to that c4 summit on a snow knife ridge.

Jimmy Chin’s photo of Kitt and Robb DesLaurier on the south ridge of Everest. Coming into the Hilary Step.

——————
No - it's Kit skiing using the fixed ropes above the Hillary Step. The team had planned to ski the Hillary step but upon not finding enough snow they opted to rappel with skis on. Rob DesLauriers went first but halfway down he ran out of oxygen and passed out. Sherpas had to downclimb adjust his oxygen before he recovered. At that point everyone removed skis and changed to crampons for the rest of the descent to high camp.

The only person to have skied the entire mountain is Davo Karnicar & he bypassed the Hillary Step via the South Face.
————————-


Looking further, here’s Dave Hahn, their Everest guide-

—————————-
Fortuitously, my other job, when not guiding, happens to be ski patrolling, and as I climbed down from the summit toward the Hillary Step, at 28,800 feet, I rationalized that I'd simply switched hats up there on Everest. I would set up a belay anchor and position myself above the Step, then I would declare it “open” terrain for my skiers. We'd agreed that as I got my anchors set, they would ski down to me from the summit. I'd try to make sure they didn't go out of bounds—for instance, into Tibet, three inches to the left and 9,000 vertical feet down the Kangshung Face.
————————-

The No Fall Zone

When freeskier Kit DesLauriers dropped in at 29,035 feet on Mount Everest in October, she became the first person to ski off the Seven Summits. Kit, her husband, Rob, and photographer Jimmy Chin also became the first Americans to ski from the top of the world's tallest mountain.

www.outsideonline.com

—————————-
Where are the most difficult sections on the South Face? The Hillary Step just below the summit creates problems for mountaineers. How did you manage to ski down it?

Skiing down the Hillary Step proved to be a lot less difficult than the previous section, along the very thin and exposed crest. It’s delicate and you really feel the altitude. You can probably deal with it better on a snowboard. On skis it’s complicated because there isn’t much space.

I got round the Hillary Step by skiing to the left, down a kind of exposed gully. From there to the South Summit the descent is very technical, and from here I continued without oxygen. The next part is pretty delicate as there’s a risk of avalanches. I didn’t exactly feel comfortable skiing on those wind slabs!
————————

Davo Karnicar, skiing down The Ultimate Ride on Everest

Interview by Emilio Previtali with 38-year-old Slovenian extreme skier and alpinist Davo Karnicar after his ski down the South Face of Everest.

www.planetmountain.com

None of this has anything to do with powder skiing. It’s a virtual certainty that the snow will be garbage in the most difficult places one has to get down. It’s ski mountaineering. Climb up with your stuff, descend on skis. Seems like skiing from the summit is a major focus.

More from Dave Hahn on the Lhotse Face-

——————-
The wind came back up in the night, and at six in the morning on the 19th of October, it was tough to be enthusiastic about anything. But Kit woke up eager to ski and radioed over to the tent I was sharing with Jimmy to see how quickly he could be ready. Their goal for the day: to ski nearly 5,000 feet down the 50–degree Lhotse Face. It didn't seem to bother them that the face was a bulletproof sheet of unforgiving white and blue ice any vaguely pleasant soft snow had been sandblasted off by wind and avalanches and that there would be no way to retreat once they'd made their commitment to it. One blown edge, one missed pole plant, and they'd tumble thousands of feet to their deaths.
—————————

Andrzej Bargiel is currently on Everest trying to ski it now, without Oxygen and I think alpine style- no sherpa assistance.

 

[Rod9301]

Yeah, on belay would work.
But i thought people said to ski roped together, simul skiing, which is nuts

 

[Tricia]

There is another avalanche on Manaslu
As Chris Davenport says in his tweet, its been a rough season on that mountain.

More news on this most recent avalanche

Avalanches Strike Manaslu and Dhaulagiri; At Least One Dead » Explorersweb

This morning at about 9:40 am local time, a huge avalanche hit Manaslu Base Camp. Reportedly there are no fatalities, but the slide destroyed 30 tents, according to Tashi Lakpa Sherpa from 14 Peaks Expedition. At last one Sherpa has died in the avalanche while descending from Camp 2 to Camp 1...

explorersweb.com

 

[James]

There were others there for skiing Manaslu from the summit.

————————-
Meanwhile, on Manaslu, Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison are not the only ones planning to ski down. Sarah Strattan will also attempt it after summiting with no supplementary oxygen or personal Sherpa.

Strattan summited K2 this summer. She brought her boards to Pakistan, but in the end she only carved some turns during a rotation. Strattan made a partial ski descent previously on Broad Peak.

Hungarian climber Gyorffy Akos will also attempt to ski down. Pasang Rinzee Sherpa, who worked with Simone Moro on his Manaslu attempt last winter, will assist and film Akos’s expedition.
———————Sept 16, 2022

Skiers Target Full Descents of Dhaulagiri, Everest, Manaslu » Explorersweb

Several teams are attempting to ski down three 8,000m peaks this autumn -- Everest, Dhaulagiri, and Manaslu.

explorersweb.com

 

[locknload]

^ what I was thinking too but ...


(1:01sec in) "ski from the summit of the actual summit ... which has been redetermined and it is up on a very steep and sharp angled ridge"

Really interesting...particularly the part about their being a lot of people up there who aren't experienced or skilled enough.

 

[BTaylor]

Hilaree's family, fellow mountaineers and Sherpas gave her a traditional Buddhist funeral/cremation ceremony on Sunday in Kathmandu.

Famed Colorado extreme skier gets traditional Nepalese funeral

 

[Mothertucker]

I thought this was very good.