
The story behind one man’s historic Everest descent on skis
Clip: 11/30/2025 | 6mVideo has Closed Captions
The story behind one man’s historic descent of Mount Everest on skis
When adventurers talk about Mount Everest, most often it's about climbing the world's highest peak. In October, Jim Morrison became the first person to ski down Everest’s most dangerous route. The feat was chronicled by mountaineer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin for an upcoming National Geographic documentary. John Yang speaks with Morrison for more.
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The story behind one man’s historic Everest descent on skis
Clip: 11/30/2025 | 6mVideo has Closed Captions
When adventurers talk about Mount Everest, most often it's about climbing the world's highest peak. In October, Jim Morrison became the first person to ski down Everest’s most dangerous route. The feat was chronicled by mountaineer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin for an upcoming National Geographic documentary. John Yang speaks with Morrison for more.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipJohn: When adventurers talk about mount Everest, they often talk about climbing the world's highest peak.
In October, Jim Morrison with the other way, becoming the first person to ski down Everest's most dangerous route.
It was chronicled by a mountaineer and academy winning - - award-winning filmmaker heard an upcoming national geographic documentary.
Where did the idea for this come from?
>> A lifetime of skiing on the mountains all of the world.
My partner and I has been working toward this endeavor for a long time.
John: We should know that she died tragically on an avalanche of another himalayan mountain in 2022.
You planned to do this together?
>> We had.
We dream to this out shortly after we had skied a neighboring mountain.
Right next to Everest.
We were working toward getting there and achieving this goal together.
John: How long have you been doing this kind of thing?
>> Really my entire life.
I have been trying to make a turn on the side of the ski run as a little kid.
The steepest part of snow I could find.
See what I could and could not do on my skis.
That has been my life's passion to climb interesting mountains all over the planet.
John: In order to ski down you have to get to the peak.
Talk about the climb up.
>> The mountaineering side of climbing mountains has always fascinated me but I consistently looked at it with a night of -- an eye of how can I climb the mountain and then ski back down?
This particular mountain, we climbed a route called the super draft on the north face.
In history only five souls have ever made it up this route.
Through a number of attempts from a whole bunch of expeditions.
We got 12 people to the summit together.
In the I put my skis on and skied back down.
John: In some of the pictures I have seen you had a very narrow margin for error.
We were skiing in areas where if you slipped or lost a net, you would kind of have a precipitous fall.
How did you manage that?
>> It was hard, first of all.
I was very nervous leading up to this expedition.
I visualize the entire thing.
I trained for it.
Once I was on the summit I was very focused and paid attention to what was right in front of me.
I did not pay attention to what was below me.
I am a very calculated, careful turns.
I skied within my ability where I knew I could stay on with economic a mistake.
Turn by turn I made my way down 29,000 feet down to 20,000 feet.
John: I have no idea what the snow was like up there.
Was it a challenge or did actually help you or did it make any difference?
>> The snow was very challenging.
We had a very significant wind storm just before we went up the mountain.
It's trip to most of the soft, fresh snow down to what was virtually ice.
Navigating the different terrain of the snowpack, the ups and downs and the ice that was in certain areas was really challenging.
At the same time, there was very little avalanche risk which made it safe for us to climb and safe for me to descendant in that regard.
John: You said you skied down and had to pay attention to pay - - skiing within your abilities.
Was there a point where you thought you could exhale, I think I got this?
>> That point was at the very bottom when I crossed what is the corrected in the glacier at the bottom of the mountain.
Until that point it was very intense and every turn mattered and I did not have an opportunity to really put my guard down.
But once I got onto the flat part of the glacier at the bottom of the mountain I had a true exhale of physical, calming down physically at a real emotional release.
John: Talk about what it felt like to actually do this when you knew you had done it.
>> This was something we have been working on for so many years.
We were there for three different expeditions try to get up the mountain.
I had a huge team supporting me.
A lot of people around the world pulling for me and helping me achieve this goal.
To get to the bottom, to hold off climbing this direct north face of Everest and then skiing all the way back down was a dream come true.
Something I felt really connected to.
Honoring her legacy and our life together.
I was just exuberant and ecstatic and really had a hard time understanding how I was going to move forward.
I felt like I was about to have a physical breakdown of the motion and thrill.
John: You have had major knee surgery just in April.
Was there any point this summer when you thought maybe we will do this next year?
>> I was pretty committed to going this summer.
But having surgery on April 23 and going to Everest at the end of August was a real challenge.
I worked with a great team of doctors and physical therapist to get me ready.
I checked all of the boxes along the way.
It felt really good coming into the latter part of the summer.
It was quite a first run on a new knee.
John: Talk about checking boxes, you have done this, what is next?
>> There are all kinds of nexts in my life.
For now I'm going to try to celebrate this achievement and share my story and start thinking about what other mountains there are two skiing what other places there are to explore.
John: A remarkable achievement.
Jim Morrison, thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
♪
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