When Jim Morrison stood on top of the world atop Mount Everest, he was surrounded by the highest mountains on Earth. Below him, the deep canyon of the Hornbein Couloir bisected the imposing and surprisingly steep north face.
But he had little time to admire the scenery. Mr. Morrison was in an area known as the “death zone” at an altitude of 29,032 feet. It was so named because there is so little oxygen that the human body cannot survive on its own for long, not to mention the dangers of avalanches and rockfalls.
Moreover, he was only in the middle of a grueling expedition. While most mountaineers could only dream of climbing a mountain, Morrison set himself the daring task of skiing down the Hornbein Couloir.
Described by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as “the greatest ski line on earth”, the narrow, mile-long chute on a 50-degree slope is notorious for its unforgivingly steep and icy sections. This is a “no-fall zone,” meaning that one wrong move could result in fatal injuries.
“I felt anxious. I felt fear. I felt stressed. I felt cold. I felt tired, but at the same time I felt very clearly what was happening around me and what was happening in this moment,” he explained.
“I was totally focused on what was in front of me. This was my only chance to do my best at what I’ve been working on for so long. I’m here, and now. I felt like I had a huge opportunity in front of me, and I wanted to make the most of it,” he said.
“Relentlessly straight”
Mr Morrison has experienced more tragedy than anyone else in his life, losing his wife Katie and two young children Hannah and Wyatt in a plane crash in 2011. A few years later, Mr. Morrison hit it off with his new life partner, Hilary Nelson. He is a ski mountaineer who has made his first descent on more than 40 expeditions around the world.
In 2018, Morrison and Nelson became the first people to ski down the summit of Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest mountain at 8,516 meters (27,940 feet). And they set another audacious goal: to be the first to ski down Everest’s north face.
“In my opinion, the North Face of Everest has the largest ski line on Earth. It is this couloir that bisects the great North Face.
“It’s unforgiving. It’s straight. It’s 9,000 feet long. It’s very steep, it’s very hard and it’s super high,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison explained. “Hilary and I’s goal has become to climb and ski here together, because that’s who we are.
“We are passionate ski mountaineers. The best way to explain ‘why’ would be ‘I knew I could do it.'”
While training for this majestic feat, tragedy struck again. In 2022, Nelson was caught in a small avalanche while descending Manaslu (26,781 feet), the world’s eighth highest mountain. Morrison dug her body out of the snow two days later.
Nelson’s death, and the subsequent grief and doubt that ensued in Morrison’s personal and professional life, was shocking.
“I thought a lot of times, ‘I don’t know if I want to keep going or if I want to keep going,'” Morrison said. “For a long time, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to get into the mountains and ski again.”
Gradually, by reconnecting with the natural world, Mr. Morrison began to reconsider what had been his and Mr. Nelson’s shared dream of skiing down the highest mountain on Earth.
“I started going outside for walks with my dog. He wanted to take me further away, so I had a lot of fun walking alone in the snow and being surrounded by raw natural scenery. Everest was right behind me.”
Morrison, along with Oscar-winning filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarheli, planned to climb the mountain, then descend and film the experience.
“I am determined to achieve this goal and continue to honor her legacy, to complete this project we started together, to celebrate who she was, and to keep her story alive,” he explained.
“Like everyone in life, I had a lot of moments where I was lost. Eventually I picked myself up and said, ‘I’m going to keep moving forward. I’m going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying.'”
As with all great challenges, Mr Morrison said there were “a huge number of hurdles and obstacles along the way” to the summit of Everest, and that it took several years and two failures to accomplish the feat. He scattered Nelson’s ashes on the mountaintop.
“When I stepped to the top and looked out over Nepal, I felt an incredible sense of satisfaction and pride in my team and everyone who helped me achieve this goal.
“But at the same time, I could see the mountains that I climbed and skied with Hilary. Makalu and Lhotse are right there, two other 8,000-meter mountains where I spent a lot of time with her. And I just felt her energy and spirit deeply there.”
The 12,000-foot descent back to the campsite on Rongbuk Glacier took four hours and five minutes. Morrison became completely obsessed with digging his skis into incredibly steep snowpack in order to make the few precise turns needed to survive.
At each turn, the sound of frozen snow crunching and melting, and the sound of his labored breathing, were the only signs of life for miles.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison explained in the documentary, “If you lose control for even half a second, you can’t recover and you’ll hit rock bottom.”
Morrison had to take off his skis, rappel down in ski boots without crampons and climb over an exposed section of the couloir over 650 feet of steep bare rock.
Although death was never far away, Morrison said he felt at ease throughout the feat. “If I lose my edge or slip up, I’m just going to relax. I’ve lived a full life,” he continued.
After hours of concentrated effort, pushing himself to the limits of his abilities, Morrison finally crossed the Bergschrund crevasse that marks the base of the glacier and skied down to the camp where his jubilant team awaited him.
“When I skied out onto safe terrain beyond the bergschrund at the base, I looked back at the whole mountain. I could see 9,000 feet of elevation,” he said in a previous CNN interview.
“I thought about Hillary. I cried. I screamed,” he said.
“I couldn’t understand how I could still get up. It was such an emotional release that I almost collapsed,” he added.
Despite achieving these monumental goals, Mr Morrison is still saddled with losses.
“I’ve come to understand that I’m not over that trauma and grief. I’m not away from it. I’m moving forward with it and I carry them with me.”
“Even when I’m tired and want to quit, I often channel their energy and think about them. I think about how proud they would be of me if I could go one step further. I actually just use my thoughts of the loved ones I’ve lost to help me keep going and help me take another step forward.”
“Everest: The Other Side” is now available in theaters and IMAX.
