The short 90-second clip shares some brief first-person camera angles from Morrison and some astonishing but short bird’s-eye views of him creeping down the couloir. Photo: Screenshot
It’s been approximately two weeks since American ski mountaineer Jim Morrison made a historic first descent down Mount Everest’s Hornbein Couloir. While news of the accomplishment spread far and fast, actual footage is only now popping up on the internet.
Jimmy Chin was there to document Morrison’s run. On Monday, NatGeo released its first teaser of that footage. The short 90-second clip shares some first-person camera angles from Morrison and some astonishing bird’s-eye views of him creeping down the couloir. The full footage release is being saved for an upcoming documentary.
“This record-breaking achievement will be featured in an upcoming National Geographic Documentary feature film which is currently in production with Oscar- and BAFTA-winning directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin,” NatGeo wrote on Monday.
Morrison told NatGeo the descent was “ultra-scary, ultra-beautiful,” and pinned it the greatest run on Earth.
“For ski mountaineering, the North Face of Everest is the biggest objective,” Morrison told National Geographic after his four hour and five-minute descent. He described the conditions on the slope as “abominable after a week of wind hammering. But I still got in some incredible skiing—really great turns and an ultra-scary, ultra-beautiful descent. It is the greatest run on planet Earth.”
“It’s super steep and unrelenting from top to bottom, and it runs through this tiny, aesthetic couloir. It is more than a mile long and just massive, dark, and beautiful in scale,” he said. “I’m ecstatic and exhausted. Just super emotional—really psyched to be down and done with this epic mission and so proud of my team.”
In 2002, snowboarder Marco Siffredi attempted the same descent but was never seen again after dropping into the couloir.
