SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah woman was killed on May 11 after an avalanche on Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain on Earth.
Dave Ashley said he and his partner, Shelley Johannesen, summited the mountain in Nepal on May 9. As the couple, along with their guides, descended the mountain, Ashley said an avalanche hit Johannesen and her guide, Tawa Sherpa.
"They slid all the way down their rope with the full weight of the slab and the rope fractured at the bottom and we saw them disappear off a rock," Ashley said, speaking from Nepal.
Ashley said he and his guide, Sonam Sherpa, were able to find the two.
"When I got there, I realized that both Tawa and Shelley were just laying on the ground, moaning. Sonam was securing them with ropes, ice axes, because they were about ten feet off a massive cliff," Ashley said.
Ashley said he tried to keep them warm under sleeping bags on the windy ledge for nearly 24 hours. He said one rescue team started up the mountain, but 70-mile-per-hour winds forced them to turn around. That's when he said Sonam went to find help.
"Sonam realized that that team wasn't going to get here, and so he left to go down to find somebody who could bring some bottled oxygen up, because at that time we just assumed we'll make it to sunrise, if the weather's good, we'll get some folks up here and we can figure out how to get down because we're too high for helicopters," Ashley said.
As the rescue team arrived, Ashley said Johannesen was starting to slip away. In social media posts, he said she died in his arms on the mountain.
"Shelley was loved. I'm so close to her that I just didn't see how big it is, but the posts have been just overflowing with love for her and the people she's touched. I'm so grateful that I got to spend these years with her," Ashley said.
The couple's Makalu climb made Ashley the first living kidney donor to summit the mountain, he said. He was also the first living kidney donor to climb the Seven Summits. Ashley said Johannesen's encouragement helped him in the Makalu summit push. He recalled the video Sonam shot of them together.
"She's so happy, she takes her oxygen mask off. You can hear the cackle right away, a huge smile, and there I am behind her. I can barely breathe, I can barely move, my mask is on, I'm exhausted. Just the, the contradiction that here I was, that was my goal, and it was hard for me, and she was just coming along for fun, and she had an absolute blast. That says a lot about Shelley," he said.
Ashley said they were partners both on and off the mountain.
"We were both at a point where we just stopped listening to what people said we should do and who we should be, and looked in our hearts and decided to live life to the fullest. To find a partner like that when you're older, we're in our 50s, and, and to just say, you know what, we come up with a good idea, we drop everything and, and we just go do it. That was excitement. That was passion," he said.
Ashley founded his Francis, Utah-based expedition company, DASH Adventures, in 2023. The name is a combination of his and Johannesen's first names. The pair have lead trips around the world.
"We specialize in kind of small boutique style trips where we talk about mental health, resiliency, and life-changing things while we're out and immersed in beautiful scenery," he said.
The Himalayan Mountains were a special place for the couple. Johannesen will be cremated in Kathmandu before they return for a funeral back home in the United States.
Ashley created a GoFundMe account to support Tawa as he recovers from his injuries.
