Community Loss
Shelley Johannesen, Sandwich Harbor Overlook, Namibia
For the second time this spring, the adventure racing community reels as we say goodbye to another one of our own. I know many of us are struggling to hold the continued grief of Jason Schmidt’s death in March with the new pain from Shelley Johannesen’s passing on the flanks of Makalu in Nepal over the weekend, and at USARA, we feel this same shock, pain, and sorrow as the rest of the community.
For those who didn’t know Shelley, the adventure racer, she truly made the most of her AR career, quickly establishing herself as a skilled and tenacious athlete and a supportive teammate. She raced all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Vermont to Arkansas, and she made the rounds in the Adventure Racing World Series, competing in multi-day races across several continents. When she wasn’t racing, she was quick to step in and help out as a volunteer, brightening our days, cheering us onward, lifting our spirits.
This past weekend, and in the weeks leading up to it, Shelley was pursuing another of her many passions: mountaineering deep in the heart of the Himalayas, a corner of the world she cherished. After successfully standing atop the fifth highest mountain in the world, Shelley’s group, including her partner, Dave Ashley, and two Nepali climbers, Tawa Sherpa and Phurba Sonam Sherpa, was descending when it was struck by an avalanche. While we are relieved that Dave, Tawa, and Phurba Sonam survived the accident, we mourn for Shelley, who succumbed to her injuries after being swept up by the slide.
In the wake of the news, I find myself reflecting on the old adage we are so often confronted with when someone is lost under such circumstances: They died doing what they love.
For some, there is comfort in the sentiment. Others brush such ideals into the void left behind by the sheer magnitude of such tragedies. We all process and try to explain this kind of loss in different and personal ways that help us make sense of the moment, and while I don’t have a strong personal response to the timeless idiom, I do know that Shelley’s final expedition with Dave inspired many of us, as had their globetrotting adventures before.
Ultimately, Shelley made a habit of living her life to the fullest, and knowing her, she was undoubtedly still seeking higher levels of truth and understanding than most dare to dream about during her final Himalayan sojourn. While I may not personally take much solace in the fact that she was doing what she loved at the end, I am grateful, in this dark moment, to be reminded of Shelley as the incredible soul that I knew her to be, inspiring people across the planet as she and Dave showed us what was possible as they stood atop Makalu’s lofty peak.
As I close my eyes this morning and think of Shelley, I see that captivating smile, that uncontainable joy. I hear her signature laugh rolling around the transition area, her perfectly-timed words of wisdom, her ceaseless optimism, her positive encouragement. I remember the mother of three who was happy to also be the mother, sister, aunt, or cousin to countless others along her journey; for her many teammates, those she hiked and climbed with, the volunteers she worked with at events, Shelley became instant family and she cared for us all as if we were hers.
In 2024, my family and I had the pleasure of spending an intensive week with Shelley in the deserts of southern Africa after the conclusion of Expedition Namibia. There is much about that week that I cherish, and most of my memories from the trip are framed by Shelley. The care and love she showed our children as they played in rolling sand dunes and crashing waves. The joy of a desert elephant safari, the kids sitting beside her or perched on her lap. Her silent and pensive profile as she sat atop a towering wave of sand looming over a picture-perfect Namibian coastline, undoubtedly wrestling with life’s deeper mysteries. The joyous meals and drinks we shared with her and Michael Garrison, not as a group of friends, but as a family.
As we move forward this spring, and once again find ourselves looking inward and back, I hope you all can harness Shelley’s joy for life and also her quiet resolve, her constant desire to find the literal geographical and emotional summits but also a willingness to confront and grapple with life’s inevitable valleys, her ability to serve as role model and leader but also her skill and grace at being one of the team.
While Shelley has understandably taken center stage in this story, please keep her three kids, her partner Dave, and their extended families and communities in your thoughts and prayers. Together Shelley and Dave had formed the ultimate team, and had truly become family in recent years, running DASH Adventures as an extension of their partnership, a manifestation of their dreams. And I know that Shelley was constantly doing the work to be the best mother to her children that she could be.
I know I speak for the entire organization at USARA as I say that we are once again thinking about you all during what continues to be a trying spring. Thankfully, our community is one rooted in teamwork, connection, and kinship, and we hope you all are able to find solace in those relationships. Please reach out to your teammates. Get out there and live life, take an adventure, gather as families and friends, and share all those feels and all those hugs.
It’s what Shelley would have done.
The following resources might be useful to some. Please let us know if there is any way we can help you find additional support if you need it.
211 - National organization that helps connect people to their local resources
NAMI Helpline - National peer-support service via phone, a supportive listening resource
Warmline Directory - List of state-by-state "warm lines" (i.e., phone support for people not in crisis but needing to talk to someone who can connect you to additional resources)
Best wishes to you all,
Brent
Brent Freedland
USARA Executive Director
