Walnut Creek Native Becomes First Person Ever to Ski Down the North Face of Mount Everest

"KGO reports that Morrison just became the first person to ski down Mount Everest's north face, the steepest and most challenging part of the mountain known as the Hornbein Couloir (29,032 feet.). It took him six weeks to climb to the top, and about four hours to ski down. "It's very steep, unrelenting, and technically just really challenging the whole way on the way up, so only five people have ever made it up this route," Morrison told on Monday morning."

"While going down is the easy part, the video above from National Geographic shows that the ski down. It looks like it's pretty much straight down vertically, and on incredibly challenging terrain that is clearly not suitable for skiing. "You can't make a single mistake like a blown edge, or if you slip, you know for 9,000 feet," the National Geographic Films director Jimmy Chin said on the broadcast. So, it's pretty high stakes, high consequence."

Jim Morrison, a native of Walnut Creek now living in Tahoe City, skied approximately 30,000 feet down Mount Everest's north face via the Hornbein Couloir, becoming the first person to ski that route. Morrison previously skied Lhotse (27,940 feet). The ascent required about six weeks, and the descent took roughly four hours. The Hornbein Couloir is extremely steep, unrelenting, and technically demanding, with only five people having ascended it previously. The descent offers virtually no margin for error over long vertical distances. A feature-length documentary of the trek is planned.

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