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by maribeth
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Hilaree Nelson: Mountaineer, Adventurer, Skier and Tellurider
“We all need a little fear in our lives. If you don’t have it, you’re not overcoming anything.”
I heard those words on CPR (Colorado Public Radio) as a segment of an interview with Hilaree Nelson played the day after her body was found in the Himalayas. She perished on September 26, 2022 as she started to ski down Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world. After having summited this monolithic peak with her partner, Jim Morrison, she sadly triggered an avalanche that swept her away.
Her thoughts on fear have resonated in my head ever since. So this is how Hilaree Nelson became so fearless.
I first heard about her disappearance on NPR (National Public Radio) earlier in the week. Somehow I had missed the update on KOTO, our local NPR-affiliate here in Telluride. It didn’t take long for me to realize, however, that our small mountain community was steeped in grief.
“She was a regular Telluride local,” said Ben Kerr, Station Manager and Program Director at KOTO. “Anybody who can accomplish what she did and maintain that sense of humility is amazing.”
Ben and I talked about Hilaree as I sat down in the studio to listen to a Travel Fun interview she did with me on March 12, 2015. In the podcast we sound like two Telluride gals chatting about travel and adventure almost as though we had met up for an après ski. It was an après ski of sorts because we taped the interview fresh off the slopes during an extraordinary snow week.
We were especially happy to talk about women and skiing, since Hilaree (then O’Neill) had just participated in Telluride Women’s Week, a long-running ski camp for women (actually the first in the country) at Telluride Ski Resort.
For a big dose of inspiration on how to live your best life, listen to the half-hour podcast below.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM MY INTERVIEW WITH HILAREE NELSON
On Everest and Lhotse
Hilaree talks about her epic 2012 adventure when she linked two peaks: Everest and Lhotse. “It was sort of a never-ending day,” she says. Pringles washed down with instant coffee mixed with protein shakes fueled Hilaree as she went almost fifty hours without sleep. But it was mostly the exhilaration she felt around that expedition that enabled her to accomplish this remarkable feat.
The Zone You Get In Before a Big Adventure
“I can do it,” Hilaree says. She also emphasizes research and gaining as much confidence and knowledge about something before diving in.
About Butterflies
“I like being uncomfortable,” she says. “I like having a big dose of fear.”
Why Telluride
“I couldn’t get enough of the peaks around here,” Hilaree says as she refers to the Fourteeners in the area.
The Motivation
Hilaree and I talk about self empowerment through sport, a theme that has been a big part of my life the past two and a half decades. (It’s also underscored in my travel memoir, A Tour of the Heart: A Seductive Cycling Trip Through France.) “It’s really empowering to push beyond our own walls,” she says. “I get that through being uncomfortable.” You’ll also hear that Hilaree’s adventures offered her a certain level of silence…both externally and internally.
Regarding Chamonix, France
“It’s French but very international…it was very eye-opening for me.” In our interview, Hilaree talks about this whole new world where the commonality was the mountains. Chamonix is also where Hilaree honed many of her roping skills.
On the French
Hilaree came to appreciate their frankness but was also happy that although she learned French, her language skills were not quite strong enough to engage in conversations about la politique. This extraordinary athlete also loved indulging in many luscious aspects of French life, including les pâtisseries, other French foods and wine. She also very much enjoyed the French people’s appreciation for leisure time.
Advice for Someone that Wants to Have More Adventure in Life
“Figure our what your passion is,” says Hilaree. If you’re really into wine, for example, she recommends going to France in the fall–during les vendanges–to pick grapes.
Cheers to you Hilaree Nelson! Thank you for being such a force and for seizing the day.
France French Life Paris Tours: Clay Jenkinson France Palais Royal Paris radio interview The Jefferson Hour Thomas Jefferson tours to France Travel Fun
by maribeth
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The Thomas Jefferson Hour in Paris
The Palais Royal Gardens
Palais Royal
Clay Jenkinson as Thomas Jefferson
Mon dieu! My heart is still singing from a whirlwind trip I took to France this past week. I enjoyed six joyous days in Paris and two in the country, in Normandy and Versailles. My spirit remains light with all the love, culture and beauty I soaked up during my stay. I traveled with a dear friend for the marriage of my goddaughter and we had a marvelous time. I will be writing more about impressions, tips and recommendations from that trip within the upcoming month. I’m also posting beaucoup de fabulous photos on social media, so go ahead and follow me on Facebook (and also FB for A Tour of the Heart), Instagram and Twitter for images of an insider’s experience in France. (Remember that I lived in Paris eleven years, so this trip was largely about connecting with old friends.) La bonne cuisine française, wine, French savoir faire and the amelioration of Franco-American relations (translation: lots of talking in French, English and Franglais) dominated the program. C’était merveilleux!
You can transport yourself there in this evening’s Travel Fun, my talk show on travel at 6:30pm MST. I taped an interview with Clay Jenkinson, scholar, writer, historical interpreter and creator of The Thomas Jefferson Hour, a podcast and award-winning NPR program, that features the third president of the United States just before I left Telluride. Mr. Jenkinson portrays Jefferson, a man of the Enlightenment, and answers questions about current affairs with all the intelligence and elegance of this renowned statesman.
Monsieur Jefferson embraced France with great passion and verve, which is why I found it appropriate that I have a conversation with both Clay Jenkinson and Thomas Jefferson about this great man’s time in France.
Tune into KOTO.org at 6:30pm MST tonight to hear the interview I conducted just before I headed to Paris.
Clay Jenkinson
Best of all: You can actually travel to France this fall with Monsieur Jefferson AKA Clay Jenkinson on a trip that takes you to Paris, the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Dordogne, Provence and Burgundy, un voyage that highlights many of Jefferson’s favorite sites, including vineyards that please American wine aficionados more so than ever centuries later. (Jefferson was surely one of the first big importers of French wine in America.)
There’s also a Canal du Midi add on to this trip, which is currently sold out yet I feel that Clay will be offering it again. Be sure to peruse the program of other trips that Thomas Jefferson, or rather Clay Jenkinson, will be leading this year, too. If they are anything like Jefferson, expect lots of excellent food, drink, conversation, history and culture in incredibly scenic places.
I hope you like my selection of Paris photos that accompany this post. I took them at the Palais Royal gardens. Even though these buildings and gardens date back to the seventeenth century, I imagined Thomas Jefferson strolling here during his time in the French capital toward the latter part of the 1700s. Don’t you?
Les Jardins du Palais Royal
Note that I will try to post this interview here soon as a podcast.
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by maribeth
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On Notre Dame, Loss and Love
Notre Dame de Paris
Up Close
Closer
So much has been said, written and felt about the devastating fire that ripped through Notre de Dame de Paris three weeks ago that I’m not sure there’s room to add more. Yet like the loss of a loved one, it is healing to process the pain throughout the weeks, months and years beyond the initial shock. As with death, this tragic event will always leave a hole in our hearts, since many of us did suffer a huge sense of loss, particularly on the emotional front.
For me, it brought up so much on so many levels. Le choque, or the shock, of this magnificent Gothic cathedral catching on fire was what first hit me. Utter disbelief that quickly gave way to a flood of tears. The unthinkable had happened. I remembered staring at her magnificent flying buttresses at length on a homework assignment for my Architecture de Paris course when I did my junior year abroad in Paris. Those old stones had already lived well for centuries; there was no reason to think that they would not endure centuries more. And then when I settled into living in Paris for another ten years, Notre Dame was a constant–as much as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, the rabbit warren streets of the Latin Quarter, the cafés of the Left Bank and so many other parts of the French capital that are quintessentially Parisian.
Europe Food & Wine France Hotels & Lodging Restaurants Shopping Surfing: Auto Europe Bar Jean Basque Country Biarritz dining France Hôtel du Palais La Fonda La Pizzeria des Arceaux Les Halles de Biarritz lodging Maison Arostéguy Miremont romance Shopping Sofitel Miramar southwest France Spa Impériale surfing Thalassa Spa
by maribeth
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Bodacious Biarritz
Biarritz: Breathtakingly Beautiful
La Grande Plage
Bobbing Heads in the Surf Capital of Europe
Steve & Me
I took a trip of a lifetime with my boyfriend, Steve, a while ago and now seems like the right time to write about it.
It was stunning and dramatic, sweet and endearing, intense and oh-so memorable–all very much like our relationship. It left us in awe and amazed and full of desire for more.
We both chose the destination; I chose France and Steve narrowed it down to Biarritz, an oceanside resort in southwest France in the Basque region that I had only visited once–very briefly–on a cold winter’s day during the research phase of my book The Riches of France: A Shopping and Touring Guide to the French Provinces. At that time, I did just a cursory tour of the town, one that was more focused on the boutiques of Biarritz than its spectacular coastal scene and its sensational surf.
Biarritz Beauty
Gorgeous
With Steve, it was all about the surf. No surprise there, since this is where the waves roil in with the greatest, most consistent force in all of Europe. And Steve is big on surfing. It sounded like the perfect fit to me; he had the surf and I had France. What came as a surprise, however, was how he became so taken with the whole French experience and the French themselves.
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by maribeth
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Out and About in Paris Showcases the City of Light and More
Happy Bastille Day from Out and About in Paris
Happy Bastille Day everyone! It’s France’s National Holiday and a good day for us Francophiles to raise our glass to the French and all that we love about France and Paris.
The Tour de France Arriving in the French Capital
There are two days–both in July–when you want to be on the Champs-Elysées in Paris: today, July 14 and the last day of the Tour de France bike race which typically occurs the third Sunday in July. On both these occasions, you can witness magnificent displays of color and might on one of the world’s most beautiful avenues in one of the world’s most magnificent cities. The parade has already passed by today, but mark your calendar for Sunday, July 26 when the Tour zooms into Paree.
Dining in France According to Out and About in Paris
Ah Paree
How do you keep up with what’s happening in and around Paris? Where do you find your daily dose of alluring images of this top travel destination? The website/blog Out and About in Paris is your answer to this and beaucoup plus! In addition to reading their blog posts, plug yourself into their social media and you’ll be gloriously showered with all that you know and love about the City of Light. The oh-so dynamic and très internationale Mary Kay Bosshart is the driving force behind all that is Out and About in Paris. Honestly, I don’t know how she keeps up with her reporting and postings but she does with great enthusiasm and panache.
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by maribeth
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FlipKey and Me
Ski In/Ski Out in Telluride Where Your Instructor Meets You at Your Rental
Biarritz Beauty
Vacation rentals have been experiencing tremendous growth from Telluride to Tokyo–the key is to make sure you land one that delights you. That means it’s a good idea to consider verified guest reviews for the properties you’re considering and FlipKey, a vacation rental service largely owned by TripAdvisor, provides that and more.
Paris Rental
The “more” includes terrific photos and descriptions about each destination along with expert input. Voilà, that’s where I come in, since I’m now one of FlipKey’s experts for Telluride, Colorado.
Colorado France Paris Podcasts Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride Writing & Books: Colorado France Paris Podcasts Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride Writing & Books
by maribeth
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Marking Eleven Years in Paris and Telluride with Mom
Me and Mom Early Spring 1990ish Having Tea in the Garden at the Normandy Country House
Podcast (bonjour): Play in new window | Download
Cycling France Paris Tours: Cycling France Paris Tours
by maribeth
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Discovering Paris with Fat Tire Bike Tours
The Paris Fat Tire Bike Tour Peloton
I always say that Paris is a city best explored by foot. True. But there’s a lot to cover, so I’m suggesting more and more that people first take a bike tour of the City of Light.
If you’ve read my travel memoir, A Tour of the Heart: A Seductive Cycling Trip Through France, you know that I’m into bike riding, so this recommendation should come as no surprise. Although my book features two Paris chapters, which highlight taking in the sites of the French capital, I’ve never pedaled around Paree myself. Mon dieu! I long to do it, however, in the meantime I charged a friend and occasional contributor, Peter Hans, from Discovery Maps and Guides, to check out a tour with Paris Fat Tire Bike Tours himself.
