The veteran mountaineer skied down the razor-sharp Hornbein Couloir on Everest’s North Face — a route long deemed nearly impossible.
The Feat in Detail
- Jim Morrison reached the summit of Mount Everest (29,032 ft) on October 15, 2025, after more than six weeks on the mountain.
- He then strapped on skis and descended via the legendary Hornbein Couloir linked with the Japanese Couloir — a near-vertical line of about 9,000 feet (2,700 m) of drop and slopes up to 50°.
- Morrison described conditions as “abominable” with frozen ridges, exposed rock, narrow gulleys and sections where he had to rappel 650 ft because skiing wasn’t possible.
- The route had long been attempted but never successfully skied — earlier snowboarder Marco Siffredi vanished on a 2002 attempt. Morrison’s descent is being called possibly the greatest ski line ever done.
- He dedicated the descent to his late partner Hilaree Nelson, whose ashes he scattered at the summit.
Significance
- This is not just a ski record — it pushes the limits of human endurance, technical skill and risk management at the death-zone altitude.
- The Hornbein Couloir is steep, narrow and unforgiving; even climbing it is rare. Morrison’s descent adds a new chapter in high-altitude ski mountaineering.
- It’s a symbolic achievement: decades of planning, multiple attempts, and a deeply personal narrative of loss and triumph.
What to Watch Next
- Whether full expedition footage or documentary material (by Jimmy Chin & Chai Vasarhelyi) is released — it could bring widespread attention to extreme ski mountaineering.
- The technical and safety implications: would this route now become accessible to a very elite few, or remain a one-off milestone?
- How this might influence future ski descents on other 8,000+ m peaks, and how gear, training and logistics evolve accordingly.
