When I close my eyes and think back to the North Face of Mount Everest 20 years ago, I see the so-called Supercouloir in front of me. The Japanese Couloir in the lower section and the Hornbein Couloir further up run through the wall like a straight line. An aesthetic line, a route that seems almost logical even to amateurs like me. And yet so steep, demanding, and dangerous.
In 2005, I was traveling as a reporter with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits, and Hirotaka Takeuchi, and I admired the Supercouloir for weeks from the Advanced Base Camp on the Central Rongbuk Glacier. The trio’s attempt to climb this route failed at the time due to conditions in the lower part of the wall.
Skill and luck
The fact that ski mountaineer Jim Morrison skied down this combination of two couloirs yesterday and survived unscathed borders on a minor miracle in my opinion.
“When I finally crossed the bergschrund [crevasse between the base of the wall and the glacier], I cried,” Morrison told a reporter from his sponsor National Geographic. “I’d risked so much, but I was alive.” The 50-year-old must realize that, despite all his skiing skill, he also needed luck – and got it.
Snowboarder Siffredi went missing after 2002
On this route, on this wall, this was anything but a matter of course, as Marco Siffredi‘s tragic end shows. After the French snowboarder had skied down the Norton Couloir on the North Face of Everest and the North Col to the Advanced Base Camp on the East Rongbuk Glacier in 2001, he attempted the Hornbein Couloir a year later.
The photo at the summit, on his snowboard, just before the start, was the last one showing Siffredi alive. His body has not been found to this day. The 23-year-old had ascended the Tibetan normal route via the Northeast Ridge using bottled oxygen.
Eleven companions
Jim Morrison climbed with eleven other mountaineers – presumably with bottled oxygen, otherwise it would probably have been reported – through the Supercouloir to the summit at 8849 meters. His companions were mountain guides from the commercial US expedition operator Alpenglow Expeditions, experienced Sherpas from Nepal who secured the ascent route with ropes, and a camera team led by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and mountaineer Jimmy Chin.
For more than 30 years, the Supercouloir route had not been mastered, despite several attempts. It was first climbed in 1980 (with breathing masks) by the Japanese climbers Takashi Osaki and Tsuneo Shigehiro.
The “rapid ascent” of the two Swiss climbers Erhard Loretan and Jean Troillet was legendary. Without bottled oxygen, they climbed up and down the gullies to the summit in 41 hours – with a small variation in the lower part of the wall. In 1991, a Swedish expedition recorded summit successes by three team members (wearing breathing masks) on the Japanese route. That was it – until yesterday.
Thoughts for his partner who died in an accident
Upon reaching the summit, Morrison scattered the ashes of his partner Hilaree Nelson, who died in an accident three years ago.
“I had a little conversation with her and felt like I could dedicate the whole day to her,” Jim told National Geographic. In fall 2022, Hilaree was caught in a small avalanche in the summit area while attempting to ski down the eight-thousander Manaslu in Nepal and fell to her death.
In 2018, Nelson and Morrison made headlines on Lhotse when they became the first to ski the so-called “Dream Line”: from the summit through the narrow, 45- to 50-degree Lhotse Couloir down to Camp 2 in Western Qwm at 6,400 meters.
“Survival skiing”
After the emotional moment at the summit of Everest, Morrison strapped on his skis and set off down the North Face. Conditions were “abominable” after the strong winds of the previous week, Morrison said after his successful descent. “It was a mix of survival skiing and actual shredding.”
In the Hornbein Couloir – named after Tom Hornbein who first climbed it in 1963– the 50-year-old had to take off his skis once and abseil 200 meters down bare rock. After that, he was able to ski again, or rather hop turn (change direction by jumping).
“Some sections were smooth enough for real turns,” said Morrison. “Others were rutted and raised four feet up and down, like frozen waves.” Four hours and five minutes after his descent from the summit, Morrison reached the camp on the Central Rongbuk Glacier at about 6,000 meters.
The descent was a success – three weeks after Pole Andrzej Bargiel had set the first skiing highlight of the fall season on the eight-thousanders with his ski descent on the Nepalese south side of Everest, without bottled oxygen for the ascent and descent. Bargiel had also been supported by a large team during climbing.
Success on the third attempt
It was Morrison’s third attempt to ski down the nearly 3,000-meter-high North Face of Everest. In 2023, the Chinese-Tibetan authorities had issued the permits so late in the fall that the team ran out of time.
In 2024, the expedition ended prematurely after Nepalese mountaineer Yukta Gurung was hit by a small avalanche at almost 8,000 meters and broke his femur when he fell into the rope. Yukta was rescued – and was now one of the mountaineers who reached the summit with Morrison.
Pioneer Hans Kammerlander
The first ski descent on the Tibetan north side of the mountain was achieved in 1996 by South Tyrolean Hans Kammerlander. Without Sherpa support and without bottled oxygen, he had climbed the normal route via the Northeast Ridge and skied down the same route. However, due to a lack of snow, Hans had to take off his skis in several passages.
Update 28 October: Click here to watch a National Geographic video and get a first impression of Jim Morrison’s ski descent through the Hornbein Couloir.
