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An extreme skier from the U.S. who fell to his death from one of the world’s highest mountains on Sunday had a traditional funeral at a Sherpa crematorium, with Buddhist monks presiding over a ceremony attended by family, friends and government officials.
Last week, Hilaree Nelson and her partner Jim Morrison fell from the 26,775-foot (8,163-meter) summit of Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth highest peak.
The 49-year-old’s body was taken from a hospital mortuary to Kathmandu’s Sherpa crematorium in an open-top truck adorned with her posters and garlands.
Family, friends, climbers and government officials gathered at the funeral to lay flowers and scarves over her body and then a pile of wood.
Buddhist monks light pyre as they play musical instruments and chant sutras, while mourners light incense.
Relatives of Ms Nelson were flown to Kathmandu for the funeral.
She disappeared on September 26, and rescuers searching by helicopter two days later found her body and airlifted it to Kathmandu. Bad weather hindered the initial search.
Climbers on Manaslu have been battling harsh weather conditions and repeated avalanches.
Ms Nelson’s fall came on the same day that an avalanche at a lower altitude on the same mountain killed a Nepalese man and injured several other climbers.
During Nepal’s autumn climbing season, hundreds of climbers and their local guides attempt to reach the summit.
Ms. Nelson, from Telluride, Colorado, and Mr. Morrison, from Tahoe, California, are extreme skiers who reached the summit of Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest peak, in 2018.
The Nepalese government has issued permits to 504 climbers for this autumn mountaineering season. Most people are climbing Manaslu.
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