It鈥檚 the spring of 2017, and Hilaree Nelson is standing on the summit of 21,165-foot Papsura Peak, a.k.a. the Peak of Evil, in the Himachal Pradesh region of the Indian Himalayas. She鈥檚 been waiting for this moment for two decades, ever since she first glimpsed the peak. Her first attempt to climb it, in 2013, failed. But now here she is. She and her partners鈥攂oyfriend Jim Morrison and longtime friend and photographer Chris Figenshau鈥攈ave been above 18,000 feet for the past 30 hours. They haven鈥檛 eaten much, and Hilaree can see the exhaustion pooling in their eyes. She smiles inside the hood of her parka, adjusts her goggles, cinches the strap of her self-arrest ski pole, and clicks into the skis she鈥檚 hauled thousands of miles so she can drop this line she鈥檚 been obsessed with for so long.
The shot runs 3,000 feet, at an angle of 50-plus degrees. A combination of punchy snow and hidden ice makes the exposure that much more intimidating. One wrong move and you cartwheel until you die. Hilaree is 鈥渟cared shitless鈥 of the ridiculously high-stakes terrain. But after leapfrogging with Morrison for a bit, everything in Hilaree鈥檚 action-packed and extremely successful life鈥攖he parenting, the sponsors, the mentoring, the expedition planning鈥攄isappears and she simply becomes the Leader of a Line She Has Eyed for Nearly 20 Years.
With a ski mountaineering career that鈥檚 spanned decades and included dozens of first descents and expeditions to 16 countries and counting, 45-year-old Hilaree has learned to morph into whatever identity a given scenario calls for. If that sounds borderline schizophrenic, it isn鈥檛. It鈥檚 just that Hilaree wants so much in life鈥攁nd is so many things to so many people鈥攖hat accomplishing it all demands she embody different personas.
Of course, before she became one of the best ski mountaineers of her generation, a mother to two boys, and one of The North Face鈥檚 most tenured athletes, she was just a lanky jock growing up in Seattle. Then a ski coach at Stevens Pass, in Washington鈥檚 Cascade Range, convinced her to join a weekend team. Unlike her big-mountain skiing contemporaries Chris Davenport and the late Shane McConkey, Hilaree never bashed a single gate growing up鈥攕he preferred to freeski. Her love of ripping natural terrain eventually led her to France鈥檚 Chamonix Valley, where she wriggled into a harness, terrified herself on the plummeting couloirs, and won the 1996 Women鈥檚 Extreme Skiing Championships.
While there, she met another rare, expedition-dreaming woman skier, Kasha Rigby, and between 1999 and 2001 the two planned, funded, and traveled to remote peaks in Lebanon, Russia, India, and South America. Enter Hilaree, Rising Star Expedition Skier. The North Face offered her a spot on its athlete team in 1999. In the years since, she has climbed and skied a greatest-hits list of summits around the world: Cho Oyu, Makalu, Everest, Denali, and Lhotse, to name a few.
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And then, at the height of her career, Hilaree decided to have children with her then husband, Brian O鈥橬eill. By 2007 she was the聽mother of Quinn, followed in 2009 by Greyden. Today she is Hilaree, Working Mother of Two, with the Most Exciting Job in the World.
As a North Face athlete and ambassador, she鈥檚 third in the chain of command in terms of tenure, after Pete Athans and Conrad Anker. As a teammate, she is a peer and someone to idolize. 鈥淔rom the first big expedition I did with her, she鈥檚 been totally dialed and meticulously put together,鈥 says her colleague and expedition photographer Jimmy Chin. 鈥淎nd after all this time, her passion and motivation just seem to be growing. It鈥檚 not easy to juggle family life with being a professional mountain athlete, and she does it with grace and composure.鈥 Teammate and climber Emily Harrington is more succinct: 鈥淪he鈥檚 the woman I鈥檝e looked up to since I started branching out into bigger mountain objectives around six years ago.鈥
The problem with chasing such rarefied objectives? It鈥檚 risky. When ski mountaineers have kids, they tend to scale back on the big-mountain exposure. Hilaree calls this聽鈥渄ownshifting their tolerance for fear.鈥 The question became how to remain that Working Mother of Two without giving up the Most Exciting Job in the World. The solution: Nelson morphed into a Mothering and Mountaineering 脺ber-Tactician.
When she鈥檚 at home in Telluride, she鈥檚 fully in the moment with her boys, and when she鈥檚 on an expedition, she鈥檚 laser-focused on the decisions that keep you alive. One day she鈥檚 at home, cooking, taking the kids to ski races, joining their field trips, and teasing them with kisses. The next day,聽she鈥檚 out in the mountains, waking up in a tent, knowing the kids are in a safe place鈥攚ith their dad, her family, and a network of loving friends. Then she鈥檚 on the move again, chasing the beam of her headlamp to another exotic peak. 鈥淚鈥檓 finally in a place of self-acceptance,鈥 she says.
That newfound self-approval has allowed Hilaree to burn hotter and brighter as a mother and an alpinist. When self-doubt creeps in, her guiding star is her sister Ann-Margaret Johnson, who shoots family photography. 鈥淪he鈥檚 always checking in on me as a calm, supportive person that I can bounce ideas off of. When I鈥檓 hard on myself, she says, 鈥楲ook at all these things you鈥檙e trying to balance. Take a breath鈥攜ou鈥檙e on track and doing well.鈥欌
Already on the docket for this spring: Finish the National Geographic Live tour, ski some Sierra fourteeners, and spend two weeks in Alaska鈥檚 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, climbing and skiing with fellow The North Face athlete Kit DesLauriers. That and more skiing and climbing in Telluride with Greyden and Quinn. On track indeed.
Her advice to other women with little kids and big dreams? Dream away鈥攚ith love, they can take it. 鈥淜ids are the center of your life, but they don鈥檛 always need to be told that every day,鈥 she says. 鈥淚f they see you following your inspiration, it will teach them to find their own life direction.鈥
Who knows, maybe someday the boys will be looking through the logbooks and they鈥檒l learn that Hilaree was Not Only the First Mom but the First Human Explorer to rip that 3,000-foot, 50-degree line off Papsura.
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