RIP Hilaree Nelson Then. Condolences to her Children.

How HilareeNelson Navigates RiskandParenting

The famed ski mountaineer on what she thinks about when she looks down

I met Hilaree Nelson in 2012 when I was considering getting pregnant. Three months prior, the ski mountaineer had become the first woman to climb two 8,000-meter peaks, Everest and Lhotse, in 24 hours, but instead of asking about that, I grilled her about becoming a mother and continuing mountain adventures. Would it be the end of my skiing and climbing?

“Some people lose their drive after kids,” says Nelson, whose sons are now eight and ten. “I didn’t.”

That response is one of the reasons I have a three-year-old daughter today, and I’m happy to report that I also stayed motivated. But I’ve often since wondered if the ability to compartmentalize those two things—your parenting mind and your climber mind—is built-in or if it’s something we can learn and hone. 

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Not sure why at all this woman's death is news.  A private risk-taker, climbing a mountain, who lost her battle with risk.  Still, it might make a person -- a woman, a mother -- rethink if her "work" in the home as a mother to her children counts as an ambitious undertaking, or if unraised children are just one of those things to be chalked up when the risk-taking ambition doesn't ... pay off.  Good luck to her sons. 

Added: Sometimes, when a woman understands the type of lifestyle she is going to live, maybe it's not so selfish to choose not to have children afterall? If society today judges -- by adding "points" to those who choose to parent -- maybe we shouldn't be deducting for those risk-averse individuals who wouldn't want to abandon responsibilities they choose to take, prematurely?