Jim Morrison Waited a Month to Climb One of the World’s Tallest Vertical Cliffs—Then Skied 20,000 Feet Down Its Untouched Face

At over 20,000 feet, the West Face of Great Trango Tower rises straight out of the glacier, a sweep of rock and snow that had never been skied. In May 2024, Jim Morrison, alongside Christina Lustenberger and Chantel Astorga, stood on top of the 20,623-foot peak and skied down, completing the first descent of the face. The year before, Morrison became the first person to ski the Hornbein Couloir on the north face of Mount Everest, a 9,000-foot line long regarded as the holy grail of ski mountaineering.