HILAREE NELSON: ON BREAKTHROUGHS, LEADERSHIP, INFLUENCERS AND FAMILY 1972 - 2022
/Recently named Captain of The North Face athlete team, Hilaree Nelson is a ski mountaineer who counts several groundbreaking ski descents of 8000-meter peaks among her impressive range of achievements. Photo: Nick Kalisz/The North Face
“Lynn Hill was a really big influencer before I even knew what rock climbing was. When she freed the nose of El Cap in the mid ‘90s, it really impressed me. And Jane Goodall—she is a distant relative of my mother.”
IN MEMORIAM: We are deeply saddened by the loss of Hilaree Nelson on September 26, 2022, during her ski descent of Manaslu, an 8,000-meter peak in Nepal which she had just summited with her partner, Jim Morrison. Hilaree juggled a life as loving mother to her two sons, Quinn and Graydon, and as The North Face athlete team captain, as well as accomplishing many of the most notable ski mountaineering achievements of her generation during the course of her 40 expeditions—which ultimately earned her the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Award in 2018. Our thoughts and prayers are with her sons, her life partner, Jim Morrison, her other family members, as well as her many close friends at The North Face and in her home town of Telluride, Colorado. Hilaree has served as an incredible inspiration and a deeply caring presence for so many. Her indomitable spirit will live on in our hearts. —RM
Interview by Rebecca Martin
Hilaree Nelson is an elite ski mountaineer whose adventurous feats include climbs and ski descents of some of the highest peaks in the Himalaya and a deceivingly dicey mountain in Antarctica, as well as leading a punishing expedition to scale the tallest peak in Myanmar.
A natural athlete since her childhood—Nelson’s parents would often drop their kids off for a day of skiing outside Seattle on weekends, and she was also a skilled member on her high school basketball team—in university she began to envision a career in the biological sciences. But her experiences engaging in scientific fieldwork as a college student, combined with a post-graduation extended ski sojourn in Chamonix, France, reinforced her growing passion for being in the outdoors. And her time spent climbing and then skiing some of the most challenging runs in the Alps evolved into a transformative five-year stay. This is where her ultimate life trajectory began to crystallize.
The first woman to serve as Team Captain of The North Face athletes—a prestigious position to which she was named two years ago—Nelson’s demeanor is genuinely engaging and also reveals her razor-sharp focus. At the same time, one has an overwhelming sense that Nelson is a woman on multiple missions: While she is open to sharing the story of her achievements and the course her life has taken, she has a keen and ingrained sense of time limits required to accomplish each of the goals the day presents. Indeed, Nelson is a master juggler—she has a staggering schedule between work, hours of intense training each day and looking after her two sons, ages ten and thirteen. Of course, these are all essential traits of an athlete who can not only scale and successfully ski down 8000-meter peaks (death-defying by any measure), but who can also develop and lead an expedition: This kind of leadership presents an unimaginable array of complexities to keep her team safe—while also endeavoring to achieve physical and highly strategic triumphs in some the world’s most challenging environments.
I sat down in late May with Hilaree Nelson in her home town of Telluride, Colorado, where she was serving as Guest Director of the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, to gain more insight into her evolution as a professional athlete and her perspectives on leadership and team building—as well as how she has tackled some of the greatest challenges in her life.
—Rebecca Martin
Nelson scales the sheer, vertical “no fall zone” of Papsura, also known as “The Peak of Evil”—a daunting 21,000-foot mountain in the Indian Himalaya. Nelson noted the dense fog posed serious challenges in determining whether she was moving up ice or snow on the vertigo-inducing terrain. Her teammate and life partner, Jim Morrison, works his way up the vertical slope in the background. Photo: Chris Figenshau/The North Face
Rebecca Martin: Who were the most important influencers for you and what were the steps you took in your life which led to your becoming a professional athlete and explorer?
Hilaree Nelson: Lynn Hill was a really big influencer before I even knew what rock climbing was. When she freed the nose of El Cap in the mid ‘90s, it really impressed me. And Jane Goodall—she is a distant relative of my mother. She came into my life at a young age because my mom talked about her all the time. She was someone I knew and saw on on TV and in National Geographic. She inspired me from a really young age. It was Jane’s risk-taking, and the science and adventure that she tied together. Oddly enough, I had this teacher of physics (I took AP classes in high school), and he pulled me out of class one day and asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to travel, and he said I should become a scientist. So I majored in biology and chemistry. That was a big turn in my life. Choosing the sciences—especially biology—got me outside into the mountains studying ornithology and geology.
After graduating from college, I made the decision to go to the Alps and pursue ski mountaineering. I ended up being there for five years. It very much felt like attending another university. It was there that my focus shifted from pursuing a career as a marine biologist to becoming a professional skier and alpinist.
RM: Looking back, would you have done anything differently, and do you have any specific recommendations to those pursuing a similar path?
HN: There are always things I would have done differently. Hindsight can be a bit torturous that way. I wish I had gone into ski mountaineering with a specific intent, with confidence that my career choice was an extension of my personality. At the time it was not an accepted career in my family. I wish I had committed to it sooner, while I was in Chamonix. I was always very apologetic for what I was doing, and I wish I hadn’t been. It wasn’t until I was in my forties, divorced, and my kids were a little older, that I finally stopped apologizing for what I was doing. I finally realized I was apologizing for being me and that was not OK.
Nelson on her successful 2017 ski descent of 21,252-foot Himalayan peak, Papsura in northern India. Photo: Chris Figenshau/The North Face
It’s difficult for me to offer advice to anyone seeking to build their own career in the mountains. I feel like my path was very unique as is the path for just about everyone I know that I climb with. It’s quite tough to make money in this field. Social media and technology have changed the sport as well. My best advice would be to have a plan for the path you want to follow. Do you want to be a mountain guide? That’s four years minimum of education for certification. Do you want to create content, share your stories as a motivational speaker or writer? Essentially, it’s important to build your skills as a climber or skier, but you also must think about the job side of it—whether it’s exploration with a science focus, or photography, or being a guide—whatever it may be. Set that intention early on, and figure out in your head your end goal. Is it related to how you are defined or your personal development? To become a National Geographic explorer, to write a book? Try and envision that trajectory.
RM: Over the years, you have participated in and led a range of mountaineering expeditions involving both climbing and extreme skiing—expeditions that unquestionably involved a high level of risk. Tell me a little bit about the decision-making process you go through when assessing this kind of risk, and the calculations you make to best ensure your safety and that of your team members.
HN: Well there’s a difference between the work you put in to assess the risk (expedition preparation) and the reality you find in the field (weather, conditions, route-finding, etc.). It’s a constant balancing act, and a very difficult tightrope to walk as expedition leader.
“When you’re faced with life and death split-second decisions it’s imperative you have a strong team that can work together to make those hard decisions. Sometimes the qualities in a good teammate—qualities that help mitigate risk—are not what you would think.”
I love the logistical aspect of planning expeditions. This is the part where you are able to do your best—from the comfort of your home—to guess at all the ways to mitigate potential risk. From pouring over Google Earth, to food prep, fuel calculations, necessary gear, proper warmth, tents, medical kits, rescue plans, communication devices, solar power and on and on.
Nelson takes a few minutes away from serving as Guest Director of the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival in May 2021. Photo: Rebecca Martin
With that said, the best laid plans almost always go sideways at some point in the face of what you actually encounter on a mountain. That’s where leadership in terms of team dynamics becomes so incredibly important. When you’re faced with life and death split-second decisions, it’s imperative you have a strong team that can work together to make those hard decisions. Sometimes the qualities in a good teammate—qualities that help mitigate risk—are not what you would think. Empathy, communication, vulnerability, humility and humor are as important as experience and technical skills.
RM: What are the differences in managing risk when leading a team, as opposed to being a team member?
HN: When you are leading an expedition you are the point person for all of the logistical planning. When I led an expedition to Gasherbrum II years ago, I had a baby at home, and was still nursing. I was not remotely the same tactical, focused climber at the time. I made a huge mistake by forgetting to plan for the climbing food on the expedition. We had our basecamp food taken care of through our outfitters, but it’s always the responsibility of the expedition leader to plan out food for when the team is above basecamp. We managed to collect enough food from other teams at basecamp but it was an incredibly awkward endeavor. You have to coordinate what everyone is working on.
“Easily one of the most risky situations I’ve ever been in was on that ridge high up on the peak Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar. We were on the edge of not having sufficient equipment and food, and had a total team breakdown.”
As the leader, often the trip idea comes from me, so if something were to happen to anyone on the team, there is a huge responsibility, because that person is there at your behest. This is a huge emotional stress that is not felt when you are a team member. I felt that most keenly on two separate expeditions to Papsura in 2013 and 2017. These trips were very dangerous—especially 2017—and it was very difficult for me knowing my teammates were with me solely because of my obsession with the mountain.
Contemplating their Papsura climb and ski descent from the team’s basecamp in May 2017, Nelson’s second attempt to summit and ski this rarely-climbed peak was ultimately successful. Photo: Jim Morrison
RM: What was one of the most risky situations you faced while on an expedition, and how did you work your way through it both mentally and physically?
HN: Easily one of the most risky situations I’ve ever been in was being on that ridge high up on the peak Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar. We were on the edge of not having sufficient equipment and food, and had a total team breakdown. It was the trifecta of a potential catastrophe. Fortunately, I had support in The North Face climber Emily Harrington—a team member—who is the one person I pushed for on the trip. I could talk through the situation with her, and then it was a matter of compartmentalizing—taking that serious emotional distress, and putting it in a box to deal with later. The challenge was how do you keep leading until everyone is off the mountain and safe?
Compartmentalizing is required on all expeditions, and this was an extreme case of it. I packaged up the thought, “I’m not good enough,” and put it away, and then I came back with more authority and confidence than I had going into the expedition. I literally put each hour into its own separate little expedition—just to get through each segment and then check it off, and it worked really well all the way through the trek out. Taking things step by step forced presence. So, you are no longer focusing on things that happened in the past, or what might happen in the future. You are entirely focused on the present.
“It’s crucial to give people their own stake in the leadership of the team… I recognize that I am not the best or most knowledgeable at everything. Therefore I must find space for others on the team to lead with their expertise.”
RM: What role has mentorship played in your expeditions and your life—both as a mentor and mentee?
HN: I am a visual and hands-on learner. Early on I always wanted to be the least experienced person on an expedition. When I was young, I always wanted to find the boys who skied better than me and then I would try to keep up. As a mentee, that’s how I learned the best. Over the years, I realized I was shifting into the mentoring position, and I really enjoyed it. I am not soft and fuzzy [as a mentor], but I like the notion of learning by being there, and by doing things. It’s been fun being a mentor to Emily Harrington and others. And there’s never a point where you are actually one or the other [mentor or mentee]—if you think you are, then you are missing something. Mentoring is a two way street. The energy of mentees can be the missing ingredient, and it was so energizing [to have it] on Lhotse with Emily Harrington, when we traversed from summiting Mt Everest in 2012.
RM: What do you believe are the most important qualities of successful leadership, particularly when you are leading a team in somewhat unpredictable conditions?
Hilaree Nelson, with her sons, Quinn (left) and Graydon, prepares to climb the via ferrata along the canyon walls that rise above their historic hometown of Telluride, Colorado. Photo: Jim Morrison
HN: Being observant, a good listener, and a clear and succinct communicator are the most important things that are key to successful leadership. Being observant is most relevant to expeditions, because you are trying to read people’s physical well-being, as well as the subtleties of the mountains. It’s crucial to give people their own stake in the leadership of the team as well. I recognize that I am not the best or most knowledgeable at everything. Therefore I must find space for others on the team to lead with their expertise. You are deducing their strengths and recognizing they are better than yourself at certain things—and you help them succeed in their endeavors. Then people have strong roles within the team, which ultimately leads to the cohesion and success of the team. And they enjoy doing it. You look at who is stronger that day, how to put rope teams together. And you take into account their adaptability, and those with the skill sets to do the various tasks where they can succeed.
RM: Aside from being Team Captain of The North Face athlete team, you are—most importantly—the mom of two boys. Do you find that these two roles complement each other and help you better manage the challenges you face on the job and at home?
HN: I guess I look at the athletes team at The North Face as a family. And I am lucky as a mom to have this whole group of highly functioning friends, as well as friends from my [earlier years]. My mom had friends, but it was hard to make time for them in that world. This group of friends from The North Face all have successes, challenges and injuries. I have known Emily Harrington since she was 23, and she is now 34 and I have seen her progress—and knowing Jimmy Chin so long—helps roll through changes that happen everyday as a mom. Being a mom is really hard and really incredible—very much like tackling a big mountain climb. I am constantly drawing on my experiences in the mountains to help me with parenting and vice-versa. They most definitely complement each other.
You can learn more about Hilaree Nelson on Instagram and on her website, as well as on The North Face website.
Photo: The North Face