Jim Morrison Makes History: First Ski Descent of Everest’s Hornbein Couloir

Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, still hides challenges for modern adventurers. This month, one of its most feared ski lines, the Hornbein Couloir on the North Face, was finally conquered. American ski mountaineer Jim Morrison completed the first ski descent of Hornbein Couloir. The run was instantly hailed as one of the most audacious in history. Morrison’s achievement marks years of dedication and serves as a heartfelt tribute to his late partner, legendary mountaineer Hilaree Nelson.

The Hornbein Couloir is infamous for its danger. It’s a steep, narrow gully slicing down Everest’s forbidding North Face. Since its first ascent in 1963, only a few climbers have dared to attempt it. Morrison’s team made just the sixth successful climb, and the first in over 30 years. For skiers, the danger grows even greater. The line demands perfect precision at over 26,000 feet, where thin air and brutal exposure turn every move into a life-or-death decision.

Morrison descended 12,000 vertical feet from Everest’s summit to the Central Rongbuk Glacier in just over four hours. He described the conditions as “abominable,” with four-foot-high frozen ridges called sastrugi. The descent also required a massive 650-foot rappel down a section of exposed rock.

The legendary French snowboarder Marco Siffredi was the last person to attempt to ski this line in 2002, and his body was never recovered, cementing the Couloir's mythical and deadly reputation.

This extraordinary climb and descent was a dream Morrison shared with Hilaree Nelson, with whom he made the first ski descent of Lhotse in 2018. After her tragic passing on Manaslu in 2022, this Everest expedition became a personal mission to honor her legacy. Morrison scattered Nelson's ashes at the summit before clicking into his skis.

The entire expedition, from the planning stages to the final turns, has been captured for an upcoming National Geographic documentary, tentatively titled Everest North. The film is being produced by Oscar-winning directors and mountaineers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi. Jimmy Chin, one of the only Americans to have previously skied from Everest’s summit (in 2006, down the South Pillar Route), was on the mountain documenting this historic moment, cementing this feat as one of the most significant in the history of high-altitude action sports.

For those of us who live for the next big line and the untold story, Jim Morrison's successful ski descent of Hornbein Couloir, the face that claimed others proves that even the most feared peaks can be tamed, but only by those with the absolute mastery and emotional fortitude to face them.