They were together for a month, 15 strangers trekking 150 miles across the high Himalayas lacking even the comfort of a hot shower.

Though Keenan Fernandez was the youngest at only 18, it didn't take long for the Westminster School alum to assume leadership on the challenging expedition.

(ENLARGE)

Keenan Fernandez, a rising sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder, died last Thursday trying to save a friend from drowning in a reservoir near Katmandu.

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"We'd be hiking and the rains would come days at a time and Keenan ... was all about making a positive out of a negative," said Keelan McCoy, 21, a senior at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. "Her staying positive in that situation was a real lifeline for all of us."

Fernandez, a rising sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder, died last Thursday trying to save a friend from drowning in a reservoir near Katmandu. Described as a swashbuckler and a student of the world, Fernandez was in Nepal over the summer studying Eastern medicine, continuing an odyssey that began nearly three months earlier at the foothills of the Himalayas.

"She was completely straightforward about how she lived her life, the things she believed," said Rebecca Williams, 23, a law student at the University of South Carolina. Fernandez couldn't help but leave a lasting impression.

"No one that age that I've known has that confidence and independence," she said. "I truly admired her. She was a lot better prepared for this trip than I was."

Not that Fernandez was always mature beyond her years. Friends remember her as rambunctious and opinionated, routinely climbing trees or venturing off the beaten path.

Only one thing gave her pause.

"She was terrified of leeches," Williams said. "That was her Kryptonite."

Fernandez, unbowed by even the widest cultural gap, emerged as a liaison of sorts to the Third World villagers the student backpackers encountered on their hike.

"It was beautiful to see," said McCoy, who had planned a snow skiing trip with Fernandez this winter. "She got right in there with the people. She wanted to be hands-on, to really experience life."

And, judging by her summer itinerary, she was in a hurry to savor it. One week after completing the Himalayan hike, Fernandez headed to Nepal, where she lived with a host family as part of the Passage Project. Fernandez was planning to return to Boulder in three weeks to resume her academic studies.

"I think she was finding a lot of things out about herself in Nepal," said Williams, who communicated often with her friend via Facebook. "She felt at home. She really loved where she was."

Her parents, Frank and Maureen Fernandez of north Atlanta, and brother, Conor Hernandez, a 2004 graduate of the Westminster School, traveled to Nepal for a memorial observance of their daughter's life Wednesday. They'll bring Keenan's body home for a service not yet scheduled.