From Everest to New Zealand and Alaska in-between: A round up of early October’s backcountry skiing/ski mountaineering news.
There’s no tapping the breaks as we zip into October. The news remains cautionary, with a spicy ski descent to round it all out.
Let’s begin with Everest.
The TNF Everest Project
This not so underground, yet remarkably quiet ski expedition, the Everest Ski Project, (at least that’s what we are referring to this project), has pivoted and called the expedition off for the season. In short, American ski mountaineer Jim Morrison aims to be the first to ski Everst’s Hornbein Couloir.
The Himalayan Times reported on Oct. 6th that the team and a group of Sherpas had made progress. “According to sources at the base camp, a team of rope fixing Sherpa climbers has been returning to the base camp wrapping up their plan to fix a route above Camp III,” states the article in the Himalayan Times.
We’ll interpret the pivot to the ski descent route being out of condition.
For context, this is the second year the group has situated themselves on the North side of Everest—administered by the Chinese— to position themselves to attempt the line. Last season, in 2023, the group was stymied by permitting/visa issues.
The project intends to document the ascent/descent. Jimmy Chin and Jackson, Wyoming’s Mark Fisher, are two well-known videographers assisting in that effort.
On his site, “Adventure Mountain,” journalist Stefan Nestler writes this about ski attempts on Everest’s North side.
“Skiing attempts on the north side can be counted on one hand. In 1996, South Tyrolean Hans Kammerlander succeeded in descending from the summit via the northeast flank and the North Col to the Advance Base Camp on the Eastern Rongbuk Glacier.
“However, he had to unstrap his skis in some places due to lack of snow. The same was true in 2006 for Swedes Olof Sundstron and Martin Letzer, who also descended via the Northeast Ridge, and for Norwegian Tormod Granheim and Tomas Olsson, who chose the Norton Couloir. Olsson fell to his death from a height of 8,500 meters.
“The only attempt on skis through the Hornbein Couloir failed in 1996, already in the ascent: the Swiss Jean Troillet and Dominique Perret ascended the north face in alpine style, but only reached an altitude of 8,400 meters. From there, Perret skied and Troillet snowboarded down to the Central Rongbuk Glacier.
“In 2002, Frenchman Marco Siffredi paid for his snowboard attempt from the summit through the Hornbein Couloir with his life. At around 8,500 meters, his trail was lost.”
British & American Alpinists Safe & Sound
British alpinist/ski mountaineer, Fay Manners, and her partner, American Michelle Dvorak, began an attempt on Chaukhama III’s SE Buttress on Sept. 27. Situated in Northern India, the peak remains unclimbed. The duo ascended the Satopanth Glacier, and began questing into the vertical—needed to haul their supplies after pitching out the technical terrain.
According to a BBC report, while hauling on Oct. 2, a dislodged rock fell and cut their lines. The team’s supplies plummeted, including extra clothing, crampons/axes, and other technical gear, shelter, food, and water. Perched at roughly 6,000m, the team hunkered down and issued a rescue message. They huddled on a ledge with a single sleeping bag.
A failed helicopter rescue ensued. Manners and Dvorak eventually rappelled to the glacier and were assisted by a group of French alpinists in the same zone. The weather also improved to the point where Manners and Dvorak were flown to safety by the Indian Air Force.
This past spring, Manners had a productive ski alpinism season in and around Chamonix. THR conducted a podcast interview with Manners this summer, which we’ll release soon.
Avalanches
One steady theme here at THR is avalanche awareness. The good folks in Alaska are already reporting early-season instabilities. We’ll keep this brief, but it’s a reminder to gather your friends and begin whatever dryland rescue scenarios you feel will better prepare you for the touring season. If you live in AK or BC, maybe you can find some snow to blow the dust off the rescue skillset.
The Chugach Avalanche Center received a report from the Jewell Glacier above Girdwood. The report stated, “Once at the top of the jewel glacier, transitioning from glacier to rock we heard a collapse and several seconds later noticed an avalanche to our right. The crown was 12” deep roughly and approximately 100-120 feet across. This occurred on a convex we estimated at 32-35 degrees.”
Smooth Descending in New Zealand
New Zealand’s Sam Smoothy and Canada’s Christina Lusti ski a first descent on 3,309m Mt. Vancouver in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. The line traverses an exposed slope and then plumb lines to the glacier below.
The mountain is the fourth highest in New Zealand and sits near Aoraki/Mt. Cook, the country’s highest peak. His latest descent is part of a border project in which Smoothy aims to climb and ski all 24 of New Zealand’s 3,000m peaks. (The Mt. Vancouver line is Smoothy’s 16th peak in the series.)
Smoothy has clearly recovered from an Achilles injury suffered last season.
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