\nThe climber mum passed away on the adventure(Image: Jam Press)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
Ashley later described the grief following her death as “utterly soul crushing”.<\/p>\n
In a further update posted yesterday, Wednesday (13 May), he revealed he had reached out for professional help as he struggled to process the loss.<\/p>\n
“I’ve reached out to a mental health\/grief counsellor today. Thank you all for checking in,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“Despair can be a deeper hole than I ever imagined. But there is a bottom.<\/p>\n
“And I can feel myself coming back up again. I’m not sure when it happened, but there was a breath that was easier to take. And another. And another.”<\/p>\n
Johannesen had been documenting her expedition online in the days before the climb.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nShelley was doing what she loved as she passed(Image: Jam Press)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
In what became her final public post, she described waiting for a safe weather window at Makalu Base Camp and said she was “healthy and ready to go” with her team.<\/p>\n
“This is going to be a tough climb,” she wrote.<\/p>\n
“Different than Everest and I am excited to see, experience, feel what I have to offer this mountain.”<\/p>\n
Makalu, which stands at 27,838ft, is considered one of the world’s most technically difficult mountains due to its steep pitches and unpredictable weather conditions.<\/p>\n
According to expedition officials in Nepal, Johannesen had only recently reached the summit before the avalanche struck while descending near the mountain’s third camp.<\/p>\n
She later died while receiving medical treatment on the mountain before her body was flown to Kathmandu.<\/p>\n
Ashley said he was now arranging cremation services in Nepal in line with Johannesen’s wishes before planning a memorial service in the United States with her family.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nThe mum will be cremated in Nepal(Image: Jam Press)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
“Love those closest to you harder,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“You’ll realize it was never enough when they are gone.”<\/p>\n
The tragedy came just months after Ashley launched a fundraising campaign linked to the Makalu expedition, describing his goal of becoming the first living kidney donor to attempt climbing the peak.<\/p>\n
In the fundraiser, posted in February, Ashley explained he had donated a kidney to a former military classmate in 2017 before later climbing Mount Everest and completing the Seven Summits challenge.<\/p>\n
He wrote: “This expedition is about more than just reaching the summit; it’s about inspiring others and breaking down misconceptions about what living kidney donors can do.”<\/p>\n
Ashley added: “It’s 1 Kidney Beyond Everest: almost as tall, but more difficult than Everest.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shelley Johannesen, from Oregon, US, was killed while descending Mount Makalu in Nepal after reaching…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche.jpg",1200,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche.jpg",1200,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche.jpg",1200,675,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-1115x675.jpg",1115,675,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/betreview.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Climber-mum-of-three-dies-in-arms-of-partner-after-soul-crushing-avalanche-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betreview.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}