Published May 13, 2026 02:23PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Shelley Johannesen knew how she wanted to spend her time on Earth: climbing mountains and making friends. That was the motto of the adventure guiding company she led with her partner, Dave Ashley.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also what Johannsen was doing the day she died. On May 11, Johannesen was descending 27,838-foot Makalu in Nepal when she was struck and killed by an avalanche. The slide severely injured one of her climbing guides, Tawa Sherpa. Ashley, 51, who was also descending the peak, watched the ordeal unfold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see their rope just hanging there, severed,\u201d Ashley told Outside<\/em>. \u201cI saw Tawa\u2019s red mitten sitting on a boulder, and past that, all we could see was swirling snow and rocks. We had no idea what had happened to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley told Outside<\/em> that the loss\u00a0of Johannesen marks the devastating end of their\u00a0profound romance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d both let go of what we thought other people wanted us to do and be, and looked inside ourselves to figure out what would make us happy during our short time on Earth,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cTo find a partner like that later in life, I felt incredibly lucky. We had an absolute blast together.\u201d<\/p>\n Johannesen, 53,\u00a0and Ashley had summited the peak on May 9, with the support of two guides, Tawa and Phurba Sonam Sherpa. That evening, the group slept at Makalu\u2019s Camp III at 24,600 feet. The following morning, as they descended from Makalu La, the high-altitude pass on which Camp III sits, the\u00a0avalanche struck the group at around 24,000 feet.<\/p>\n Phunuru Sherpa, a veteran climber who coordinated the rescue response, told Outside<\/em> that such a slide is unprecedented. He has led expeditions to Himalayan summits, such as Makalu and Mount Everest, for 29 years. He also served as a lead rescue coordinator during the 2015 Everest avalanches, the deadliest event in the mountain\u2019s history. Phunuru said the avalanche on Makalu\u2019s standard route is a complete anomaly caused by \u201csubstantial snow and extremely high winds this season.\u201d<\/p>\n Phunuru Sherpa told Outside<\/em> that the teams on the mountain were following proper safety protocols and that the avalanche was nearly impossible to predict.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year we\u2019ve had very unusual weather patterns,\u201d he said. \u201cWe check and cross-check three different reports and make decisions, but the weather at 26,000 feet can change within hours.\u201d<\/p>\n On the night before their descent, more than 30 inches of snow fell on the mountain, followed by winds of up to 60 miles per hour. The weather created a highly unstable snowpack, piling the heavy snow into a primed to collapse.<\/p>\n Of the group, Tawa Sherpa had the most experience on Makalu, the world\u2019s fifth-highest mountain,\u00a0and was leading the descent with Johannesen behind him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had just cleared a picket ahead of us when I looked to the left and saw a crack forming,\u201d Ashley told Outside<\/em>. \u201cI yelled, \u2018Slab!\u2019 And boom, it came loose. No one had any time to react.\u201d<\/p>\n The avalanche also hit Ashley and Phurba Sonam Sherpa, who were descending in the rear of the group of four. \u201cIt only carried us maybe ten feet,\u201d Ashley recalled. However, the mass of snow slammed into Tawa Sherpa and Johannesen, severing the fixed line that secured them to the mountainside. The slide then carried the two\u00a0down the mountain by 1,000 to 1,300\u00a0vertical\u00a0feet<\/span>.<\/p>\n Ashley and Phurba Sonam Sherpa radioed for assistance to Camp III. Descending the avalanche-swept terrain without the fixed lines was painstakingly slow, Ashley said. They scoured the snow and ice, unsure if their companions were buried. It took them hours to finally find Johannesen and Tawa Sherpa. The two climbers weren\u2019t buried in the slide, but they\u2019d come to rest on a dangerous ledge. Ashley and Phurba Sonam Sherpa reached them and secured themselves with ropes and axes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were about ten feet from a huge cliff, anchored in with ice axes and our harness safeties,\u201d Ashley said. Tawa Sherpa and Johannesen weren\u2019t moving, and Ashley couldn\u2019t determine the extent of their injuries. But both climbers were alive, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth appeared to be pretty severely injured, with internal injuries, but there were no apparent signs of bleeding, compound fractures, or anything like that,\u201d Ashley explained. It was the early afternoon, and he sent an SOS to his outfitter, Expedition Himalaya.<\/p>\n Ashley and Phurba Sonam were faced with a tough situation. They were exhausted, low on supplies, and without supplemental oxygen. They\u2019d used up all their bottled oxygen during the ascent, having planned a quick descent from Camp III to Camp II at 21,000 feet.<\/p>\n Winds were picking up, and the temperature was dropping. There were no good options to mount a rescue, Ashley said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you\u2019re with two people who can\u2019t walk, and you\u2019re too high for a helicopter rescue,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cThe sun\u2019s going down, and if you stay there, you might die, but if you leave, they\u2019re going to die. So what do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley said he did not consider leaving the two.\u00a0\u201cI was going to stay with her until the sun came up,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was obviously in pain, but she was still doing well. So we stayed put and tried to keep them warm, but we didn\u2019t have a stove or a tent, so it was hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley wrapped himself and Johannesen in a sleeping bag and spent the night cuddling, trying to keep them both warm as her condition deteriorated. \u201cI would occasionally lift the edge of the sleeping bag, looking to see if I could see the headlamps of any rescuers, but that would fill the bag with bitterly cold air,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nAn Unforeseeable Slide<\/h2>\n
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