Adrian Ballinger
In 2015, Adrian Ballinger, Emily Harrington, Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison attempted to ski from the summit of Makalu, the fifth tallest mountain in the world, located near Mount Everest on the Nepal/China border. Due to avalanche danger and uncooperative weather conditions, the expedition team were forced to retreat from the mission. The group left base camp via helicopter, flying by the mountains of the Himalaya—the “roof of the world,” as it’s described—including Lhotse, standing mighty at 27,940 feet above sea level. On the flight, the group made a pact that if they were to ever attempt to ski another peak in this region, it would be Lhotse and it would be together as a team.
Fast forward three years (2018) and Adrian Ballinger has summited Everest twice, once without supplemental oxygen; Emily Harrington has “free climbed,” i.e. sans safety equipment, “Solar Flare,” one of the most challenging ascents in California’s High Sierra, along with a handful of other routes; and life partners Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson have added to their lengthy list of ski mountaineering adventures including a successful summit and ski of Alaska’s Mt. Denali, the highest mountain in North America, and a daring ski descent from top of the 21,165-foot Papsura Peak in the Himachal Pradesh region of the Indian Himalayas. Editor’s note: Since this story was published, Hilaree Nelson sadly passed away in a tragic avalanche accident near Kathmandu, Nepal.
The group is now ready to tackle the “Dream Line” on Lhotse: a straight, uninterrupted 6,000-foot couloir running the entire length of the mountain. In late August, Ballinger, Harrington, Nelson and Morrison will head to Nepal and spend nearly a month in total trekking, camping, acclimatizing and attempting to ski from Lhotse’s summit—a feat yet unachieved. FREESKIER caught up with Ballinger and Harrington to get the lowdown on the upcoming expedition, to find out the gear they’ll be using on the descent, what they’re most concerned about (it surely isn’t the nearly 50-degree slope) and to learn how, exactly, all four mountaineers plan to click into pair of skis at nearly 28,000 feet and carve turns the entire way down the mountain. Hit the link to read about this timeless expedition.
