Snowboarder Nick Russell and skiers Adam Fabrikant and Billy Haas completed the first-ever ski and snowboard descent of Nepal’s Dorje Lhakpa, also known as the Langtang Pyramid. The descent was Russell’s second time in Nepal and his fourth expedition to the greater Himalaya region. In 2022, he attempted Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain in the world, when ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson died.
The team climbed the peak for two days and then descended the same line on skis and snowboard with a photographer and videographer documenting them along the way. While Russell announced the accomplishment and credited some good weather for their attempt, the conditions were still grueling.
First, a storm blasted through the region shortly after the team reached their base camp, which Russell says brought their zone much-needed snow at lower elevations and filled in their line. That allowed for a clean descent when the time came. “No down climbing, no rappelling,” Russell said. Three members of the team also reportedly caught COVID at one point, recovering just in time for the weather to clear.
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“The south face is quite steep and sustained above the bergshrund, with sustained 45-50˚ and pockets of 55º, we estimate. The face had seen so much sun [over] the past two weeks that the rising conditions were the biggest unknown of the entire project,” Russell said. “We didn’t know whether or not it would be too icy to ride/ski until we got on the face. The snow was mostly firm, pretty much on the brink of being edge-able. It was two tool and crampon climbing the entire way, with no proper rests to take the pack off.”
He says the climb took about seven-and-a-half hours and roughly 90 minutes to descend with breaks for the photographer and cinematographer to reset.
As for the snow, Russell says it presented its own challenges. He called the firm snow “just edge-able enough to hold an edge.” Had it been any harder the crew would have had to rappel down.
“The snow was more firm than I would have liked, but just edge-able enough to hold an edge,” he said. “Between the altitude, exposure below, steepness, and how firm it was, it was by far the heaviest line I’ve ever ridden.”
“The entire line was a no-fall zone; one lost edge, and it’d be over.”
