A strong American team featuring skier Jim Morrison and Oscar-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin is back on the Tibetan side of Everest. Morrison will attempt a full ski descent as a tribute to his late wife, Hilaree Nelson, who died in 2022 as she attempted to ski down Manaslu.
“Chin is set to film the ski descent under the million-dollar project funded by the National Geographic Society and The North Face,” The Tourism Times wrote. “IFMGA guides Pemba Gelje Sherpa, Pemba Wongchu (Ongchu) Sherpa, Yukta Gurung, and Pemba Sherpa, along with four more Tibetan guides, set up Camp 2 last week, and they are now at Base Camp,” sources on the North Side of Everest told the Nepal-based paper.
This is the third attempt for the team to ski down Everest and film the process. Bureaucratic issues thwarted the first attempt in 2023, and a second expedition last year was also aborted without reaching the summit. Expedition members never shared details about why it was called off. However, according to The Tourism Times, the 2024 attempt ended after some of the local guides suffered an accident near Camp 2.
Progress so far
Camp 2 is also the highest point reached by this year’s team so far. “The team returned to Base Camp and is now waiting for fair weather to further proceed with the rope fixing above Camp 2,” the newspaper reported.
Everest’s normal route from the North side has three high camps and follows the Northeast Ridge. The question is where the ski descent will take place. Last year, Morrison’s dream was to ski down the extremely steep Hornbein Couloir, which goes straight down the right side of the North Face.
Everest North Side. The Hornbein Couloir is the dark blue line. The red line to the left shows the huge Norton Couloir. Photo: Wikipedia
Super Sherpas
U.S.-based Alpenglow Expeditions, directed by Adrian Ballinger, is outfitting the project, The Tourism Times reported. No wonder, then, that IFMGA guide Pemba Gelje Sherpa, who has guided extensively with Alpenglow, is involved. Pemba Gelje is a skilled skier, achieved a Manaslu Fastest Known Time (later beaten by Tyler Andrews), and is an internationally-accredited mountain guide. On social media, Pemba has advertised a Mera Peak ski trip with his own company, Expeditions High Mountain, in November, but he still has plenty of time to work on Everest first.
Pemba Gelje Sherpa. Photo: Pemba Gelje/Instagram
Pemba Ongchu Sherpa also works at Expeditions High Mountain. He is an experienced rescuer, a mountaineering instructor, and a 15-time Everest summiter. Yukta Gurung usually works with Elite Exped. He has summited 11 out of the 14 8,000’ers, has summited K2 twice, including once in 24 hours, and has experience on several mountains in China.
The Americans
Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson made the first-ever ski descent from Lhotse in October 2018. Together, they also skied down Papsura Peak in India and the Messner face on Denali (after climbing via the Cassin Ridge). Morrison also skied down Cho Oyu. Last year, he completed the first ski descent of Pakistan’s Trango Tower with Christina Lustenberg and Chantel Astorga.
In September 2022, Morrison and Nelson summited Manaslu in tough conditions, planning a ski descent of the mountain. Shortly after starting down, Nelson triggered a small avalanche and fell to her death. Since then, Morrison has hoped to ski Everest as a tribute.
Jimmy Chin, 51, skied down Everest with Kit and Rob DesLauriers in 2006. He also climbed the impressive Shark’s Fin wall on Meru Peak in India with Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk. He has an outstanding career in mountain photography and climbing documentaries, including an Oscar for his Free Solo documentary, featuring Alex Honnold.
Skiing Everest from both sides
This year, there are two ski expeditions on Everest, one on each side of the mountain. Andrzej Bargiel of Poland will try to summit the peak without supplementary oxygen from the Nepali side. He will then do a complete ski descent, as he has previously done on K2 and both Gasherbrums.
Bargiel’s team reports regularly on their progress. According to the latest update, the Polish skier is acclimatizing in the area and checking possible ski lines from above the Khumbu Icefall, which has been fixed for the occasion.
Andrzej Bargiel on Everest Base Camp some days ago. Photo: @pawlikowski.media
Not the first to ski Everest
Note that the current ski expeditions are not looking for a first, because Everest has been skied before. Slovenian Davo Karnicar achieved the first complete ski descent of Everest in October 2000, via the South Face route. Karnikar managed to go down all the way from the summit, traversing the Hillary Step, sliding down the Lhotse Face and the Valley of Silence.
He then followed a daring strategy on the lower part: He bypassed the Khumbu icefall by finding a line of descent near the base of Nuptse. Karnicar used oxygen briefly at Camp 4.
In 2016, Rob and Kit DesLauriers, together with Jimmy Chin, repeated the feat. They rappelled down the Hillary Step and sections of the Khumbu Icefall.
In 1970, Juichiro Miura of Japan did a partial ski descent on Everest. He skied 2,000m down the Lhotse Face, using a parachute to slow his descent.
There has been no complete ski descent of Everest’s North Side. Jean Troillet and Dominique Perret of Switzerland attempted it in 1996, without success. Hans Kammerlander skied down the North Side, also in 1996, after a no-O2 speed ascent, but bad conditions forced him to remove his skis and rappel down for 300m. For daredevil skiers, the most challenging feature on the Tibetan side is the Hornbein Couloir. French snowboarder Marco Siffredi was last seen alive when he started down the Couloir in 2002.
