The American team on the Tibetan side of Everest summited today via the North Face. Jim Morrison now intends to ski down from the top.
A few climbers on the team, along with Nepali guides, scaled the world’s highest mountain via Hornbein Couloir early this afternoon at around 2 pm Chinese time, sources in Base Camp told The Tourism Times.
Hornbein Couloir descent?
Oscar-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin and skier Jim Morrison, supported by six Sherpa climbers, left Camp 3 on the final push last night. News earlier today reported that the team had passed 7,500m. For a time, it seemed they might turn around somewhere in the Hornbein Couloir, but in the end, they continued on successfully.
It is not yet known who reached the top, although Jim Morrison is among the summiters, according to The Tourism Times.
Everest North Side. Photo. Shutterstock
Morrison hopes to ski down the North Face (probably through the Hornbein Couloir) as a tribute to his late partner, Hilaree Nelson, who perished during a ski descent of Manaslu in 2022. However, there were no details about the team’s planned route, the composition of the team, the filming, or the climbers’ progress.
The expedition has not made a single official comment, and The Tourism Times is the only source of information about the powerful American team, sponsored by National Geographic and The North Face.
A terrifying challenge
No one has done a complete ski descent of the North Side of Everest. The normal route goes down the long Northeast Ridge, but the purest — and scariest — ski line is a direct descent down the middle of the North Face, through the Hornbein Couloir.
The challenge is immense: the Hornbein Couloir is a vertiginous, narrow chute situated between 8,000 and 8,500m. It’s avalanche-prone and between 40º and 60º steep. Americans Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld first climbed it in 1963. The last person who tried to slide down the Hornbein was snowboarder Marco Siffredi in 2002. He lost his life in the attempt, and his body was never found.
The Supercouloir or Superdirect route up the North face of Everest, linking the Japanese and the Hornbein Couloirs. Photo. Ralf Dujmovits
If a skier survives the Hornbein, an even more formidable challenge awaits at the bottom of it. The options are a long, virtually undoable traverse on mixed terrain, with vertical passages and ups and downs, toward the West Ridge, or to continue down the center of the face, linking up with the 60º steep Japanese Couloir.
This is called the Everest Superdirect or Everest Supercouloir route. It was first climbed by the Japanese team, who gave the name to the lower couloir in 1980. Swiss climbers Erhard Loretan and Jean Troillet repeated the route in alpine style in 1986, but they never skied down.
