{"id":797405,"date":"2019-07-07T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T20:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/telluride-skier-hilaree-nelson-talks-about-career-himalayas-aging-as-endurance-athlete\/"},"modified":"2019-07-07T14:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T20:08:00","slug":"telluride-skier-hilaree-nelson-talks-about-career-himalayas-aging-as-endurance-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/telluride-skier-hilaree-nelson-talks-about-career-himalayas-aging-as-endurance-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"Telluride skier Hilaree Nelson talks about career, Himalayas, aging as endurance athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.7496561210454\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-368524-551\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Ian Wagreich, Aspen Ideas Festival | Skier Hilaree Nelson talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Doerr-Hosier Center in Aspen.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Skier Hilaree Nelson talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Doerr-Hosier Center in Aspen.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Ian Wagreich, Aspen Ideas Festival<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11.jpg\" alt=\"Skier Hilaree Nelson talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Doerr-Hosier Center in Aspen.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Ian Wagreich, Aspen Ideas Festival | Skier Hilaree Nelson, second from right, talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Hotel Jerome Ballroom in Aspen. The panel was moderated by Jon Frankel, right, and included NBA players Kyle Korver and Kevin Love, far left.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"2\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"15\">\n<p><strong>Skier Hilaree Nelson, second from right, talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Hotel Jerome Ballroom in Aspen. The panel was moderated by Jon Frankel, right, and included NBA players Kyle Korver and Kevin Love, far left.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Ian Wagreich, Aspen Ideas Festival<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-1.jpg\" alt=\"Skier Hilaree Nelson, second from right, talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Hotel Jerome Ballroom in Aspen. The panel was moderated by Jon Frankel, right, and included NBA players Kyle Korver and Kevin Love, far left.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Nick Kalisz, The North Face | Hilaree Nelson is photographed during a 2018 The North Face expedition to ski Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Hilaree Nelson is photographed during a 2018 The North Face expedition to ski Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Nick Kalisz, The North Face<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-2.jpg\" alt=\"Hilaree Nelson is photographed during a 2018 The North Face expedition to ski Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Nirmal Purja \/ AP | In this May 22 photo, a long queue of mountain climbers line a path on Mount Everest.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>In this May 22 photo, a long queue of mountain climbers line a path on Mount Everest.<\/strong><br \/>Nirmal Purja \/ AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/skier-atd-070619-11-3.jpg\" alt=\"In this May 22 photo, a long queue of mountain climbers line a path on Mount Everest.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports-news\/telluride-skier-hilaree-nelson-talks-about-career-himalayas-aging-as-endurance-athlete\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports-news\/telluride-skier-hilaree-nelson-talks-about-career-himalayas-aging-as-endurance-athlete\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">ASPEN \u2014 Like any professional athlete, Hilaree Nelson has been forced to change her tactics with age. Now 46, the Telluride-based skier and adventurer knows her body isn\u2019t what it once was, but this hasn\u2019t necessarily slowed her down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019ve done this so long and put so much time into it my senses are so adapted to what I do that I\u2019m so much more efficient and better at it, even if I\u2019m not physically even close to as strong as I was in my 20s,\u201d Nelson said in a recent interview with The Aspen Times. \u201cAnother big part of it is I love it. That gives me a greater ability to take risks. Even if I fail, I\u2019m excited I got the chance to be there and to try.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nelson, an athlete with The North Face and an icon in the world of big-mountain skiing, was in Aspen late last month as a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Her sessions included a discussion on being an endurance athlete as well as what it means being an athlete past 40.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">One of the questions faced was if \u201c40 is the new 20 for pro athletes,\u201d a question that comes up with the continued success of people like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the timeless tennis star Roger Federer. Her answer was more or less a no, but she does believe athletes are approaching age much differently than in the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have the mindset of, \u2018Oh, well I just turned 40, so I can\u2019t be an athlete anymore,\u2019\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThere is more efficiency. There is more knowledge. There is more wisdom and mental strength when you are 40. So it\u2019s a totally different approach to being an athlete. So I don\u2019t think 40s are the new 20s, but I think 40s are totally being reinvented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nelson is a prime example of this. She\u2019s continued to set the bar into her 40s, having been named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2018. Only last fall, Nelson and boyfriend Jim Morrison, another of the sport\u2019s icons, completed a historic climb and ski of Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Physically and mentally, Nelson said she is still plenty strong. But what is just as important is having the desire to keep going, something she admits to struggling with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI still have big plans. I still have a few audacious mountain ski goals out there,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m literally at the peak of doing what I do, but what is waning for me is the motivation. I\u2019m not totally jonesing to go spend four weeks in a single-walled tent in the snow at 21,000 feet. I used to really love that, but I\u2019m not as motivated. I kind of like having a hot shower and the creature comforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As experienced as anyone on big mountains, Nelson spends a lot of her time these days sharing her stories through events like Aspen Ideas Festival. It\u2019s where she sees her life going, although her days on the mountain are far from over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere are all these different offshoots to my climbing\/skiing trajectory that have been really enjoyable,\u201d she said, \u201cand hopefully that\u2019s where I can kind of end up going as I slowly pull away from the big mountains and sleeping in tents at high altitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">QUESTIONS ABOUT EVEREST<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Plenty familiar with the Himalayas \u2014 she was the first woman to climb two 8,000-meter peaks in 24 hours when she summited Everest and Lhotse \u2014 Nelson was asked her thoughts on Everest\u2019s overcrowding issue. The topic came to the forefront this spring after climber Nirmal Purja posted a photo on social media of a line of people waiting to summit the world\u2019s highest peak back in May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt makes it really dangerous to have that many people on a single climb. That part is tough,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThe main reason for it being such an issue this year \u2014 and this is the same thing that happened to me when I was there in 2012, so that\u2019s how I can speak to it \u2014 is the weather just didn\u2019t offer up any summit opportunities early on, so everyone was forced into one week of climbing for the summit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nelson said a solution could be to have more people look into the fall climbing period. When she and her team skied Lhotse last autumn, Nelson said they were the only people on the mountain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When weather cooperates, overcrowding isn\u2019t likely to become a huge issue on Everest. But when it doesn\u2019t, that\u2019s when tragedy tends to happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cHow do you address that?\u201d Nelson asked. \u201cIf people want to climb Everest they should be able to try. But I don\u2019t know. I wish there was some way to insure people were spread out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">AN UPHILL FAN<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nelson admitted to being a big fan of Aspen Skiing Co.\u2019s generous uphilling policies. The Roaring Fork Valley has become a hotbed for in-bounds uphilling during the winter, but she does hope people don\u2019t get too ahead of themselves when trying to take those skills into the backcountry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt gives those who don\u2019t necessarily have the backcountry skills a place to get this incredible exercise. I\u2019ve been to Aspen and I\u2019ve done the skimo touring up Aspen Mountain and it\u2019s social and it\u2019s fun and it motivates you to get up early and get on the mountain,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cMy worry is we are not taking the time to learn. We have a bunch of really good skiers that may not have those backcountry skills, and put those two together and it\u2019s dangerous and tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">This story is from AspenTimes.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports-news\/telluride-skier-hilaree-nelson-talks-about-career-himalayas-aging-as-endurance-athlete\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skier Hilaree Nelson talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Doerr-Hosier Center in Aspen.Courtesy Ian Wagreich, Aspen Ideas Festival Skier Hilaree Nelson, second from right, talks June 25 during the Aspen Ideas Festival inside the Hotel Jerome Ballroom in Aspen. The panel was moderated by Jon Frankel, right, and included NBA players [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-797405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 15:37:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}