Hilaree: “As you descend on skis, you kick chunks of snow down, along with rocks and the possibility of avalanches. All of this happened on the descent, so if there had been teams climbing on the Lhotse face or even in the couloir itself, then we wouldn’t have been able to reduce the danger.”

Jim: “The way I like to describe it is that it’s really a difference between black and white. In the spring, the mountains are really black, it’s really rocky as the winds have been blasting all winter, it’s been really cold, with nothing sticking up high.”

Jim: “And in fall, it’s all white, there’s a lot of snow up there. In this particular fall, we had a really strong monsoon last summer and we had a really good snowpack which creates this perfect balance of enough snow.”

“It’s akin to performing 100 bodyweight squats at the gym whilst sipping air through a kids-sized straw”

After clipping into their skis on the precariously situated summit, a steep initial pitch enticed them into the top section of the couloir. This roll-over quickly drops away into an average angle of 45 to 50 degrees for the length of the hourglass shaped couloir.

Hilaree: “I was really afraid that the top funnel might release [avalanche] on us whilst we were climbing up or at the very least fracture when we were trying to ski through the couloir. There was a pretty scary windslab above the choke in the couloir itself. Quite hollow but it held, which is good.”

Jim: “We skied the whole couloir in pieces. I skied off the summit and Hilaree skied down to me. We navigated this windslab at the top together where one of us would ski down and talk to the other about where we were going and then Hilaree would ski down and get into a safe zone under some rocks and then I would ski down and we would be leapfrogging one another all the way down.”

Jim: “Typically it was the person below who was at risk because whoever was going down second was starting a slide [of snow and ice] from their feet. Sometimes I was skiing above Hilaree and I was worried about knocking snow down above her, but then she would get tucked in behind some rocks.”

For reference purposes, the steepest section of European ‘black’ graded pistes or ‘black-diamond’ in the States is usually around 30 – 35 degrees. The Lhotse Couloir gave a consistent average angle of 45 – 50 degrees for 770 vertical metres. That’s two of London’s The Shard stacked on top of each other with Big Ben added on for good measure.

Now imagine skiing this length whilst performing jump turns in a tight corridor at high altitude. As activities go, it’s akin to performing 100 bodyweight squats at the gym whilst sipping air through a kids-sized straw.

“45 – 50 degrees for 770 vertical metres. That’s two of London’s The Shard stacked on top of each other with Big Ben added on”

In all seriousness, only the most negatively-minded cynic would refuse to take their hats off to Hilaree and Jim for this stunning descent that ticks off one of the most sought-after prizes in steep skiing and is, whichever way you look at it, a real beauty of a line. The pair are currently on a whirlwind tour with The North Face as the clothing giant ramps up the hype around its brand new fabric – FutureLight.

It’s going to be exciting to see what comes next out of the world of steep skiing with this gem ticked off. Hint: Jim and Hilaree are looking to keep things focused in the Greater Ranges, once they’ve got over this breathtaking descent.

Hilaree: “I know that three of the top five 8,000m peaks have been skied, Everest, K2 and Lhotse have been skied, Makalu and Kangchenjunga have not. There’s still great lines on Everest that still haven’t been skied. So that’s sort of a vague way of saying some of the things I’d like to ski! We’re not targeting things straight away. 2020 though…”

You May Also Like

Nick Bullock Interview | How The Alpinist Escaped His Life As A Prison Officer

End of the World | We Asked Leo Houlding About His Mission To Climb Antarctica’s Spectre