The American Everest Ski Project led by Jim Morrison has returned to try to ski down the Hornbein Couloir on the Tibetan side of the mountain. A year ago, bureaucratic issues thwarted the attempt.
Morrison wants to ski the couloir as a tribute to Hilaree Nelson, who died while skiing from the summit of Manaslu in 2022.
The multi-million dollar team
The original venture, supported by The North Face and National Geographic and dubbed by Nepalese media as “the multi-million dollar expedition,” effectively ended before it started last year. Chinese authorities refused entry visas into Tibet for Oscar-winning documentary maker Jimmy Chin and team member Conrad Anker.
The rest of the crew made it across the border and climbed to Camp 2 on the normal north-side route of Everest, but they never received permission to ski down the mountain. The attempt was eventually aborted.
Everest North Side, with the Hornbein Couloir marked in blue. The red line to the left shows the huge Norton Couloir. Photo: Wikipedia
This time, Morrison and the team are already at Advanced Base Camp, organizers told The Himalayan Times. The group includes several Tibetan climbers and Elite Exped partner Mingma David Sherpa. Chin and fellow cinematographer Mark Fisher will film the ski descent for a documentary.
Morrison’s dream
Morrison is a world-class extreme skier. Last spring, he found a line and skied down the Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Chantel Astorga and Christina Lustenberger.
While Everest is typically climbed in spring, the fall season may be better for a ski descent; the peak is usually well covered in snow after the monsoon. Additionally, the team will have the mountain to themselves.
Hopefully, ski permits will not be an issue this year. But Morrison will have to use O2. The China-Tibet Mountaineering Association announced that, for safety reasons, the use of supplementary oxygen is mandatory on all the country’s mountains above 7,000m. Authorities applied the rule for expeditions on the north side of Everest in spring and it will also apply to teams heading for Cho Oyu and Shisha Pangma this fall.
