The summit of Nice Trango Tower was bleeding shut. However even as soon as they reached it, Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger, Jim Morrison, and Chantel Astorga would solely be midway to their aim — to make a historic first ski descent of this revered granite tower.
Slightly below the summit, on the prime of the ridge resulting in it, the celebration stopped earlier than a big bergschrund crevasse. In 2023, this crux had foiled Lustenberger, Morrison, and Nick McNutt’s first try to ski the hanging glacier on Nice Trango.
This time, nevertheless, The North Face athletes wouldn’t be stopped so near their aim. That they had spent months planning, getting ready, and organizing logistics; that they had traveled internationally and waited at excessive camp for 4 days for the right climate window.
Then, on Could 9, they’d gotten it, and the climb had begun. When the athletes reached the excessive crevasse — the purpose that had turned them round a yr prior — it was clear they might make it. Morrison took the lead. Lustenberger and Astorga belayed him throughout the crevasse, and he climbed to the height.
“Watching him attain the summit was fairly wonderful,” Lustenberger instructed GearJunkie. “His final huge journey resulted in tragedy, and it was uplifting to see him stand on prime after a lot arduous behind him.”
Lustenberger and Astorga then adopted Morrison throughout. Standing 20,623 ft above sea stage, they took within the view collectively. They basked within the second.
However they hadn’t carried out something historic but. Many have climbed Pakistan’s Nice Trango Tower over time. Climbers first stood atop it in 1977. Nonetheless, till Could 9, 2024, nobody had efficiently skied from the height’s lofty summit. These athletes had come a protracted method to change that.
So, from the highest, they packed up their climbing gear, clipped into their skis, and dropped in.
Return to Nice Trango Tower: A Second Try on a First Descent
Nice Trango Tower’s imposing granite cliffs, glacial hazards, and technical pitches would possibly look unskiable to the common onlooker. However to Lustenberger, it was a spellbinding goal.
“I imply, it’s the Trango Tower. Have a look at it. Why wouldn’t you wish to ski it?” Lustenberger stated when requested what impressed them to pursue this primary descent. “Some wild terrain simply attracts you in with such immense curiosity.”
After the primary failed try, she and Morrison virtually instantly began planning their second. McNutt wouldn’t be a part of this time, although, and the duo crammed his spot on the staff with one other TNF athlete, Chantel Astorga.
“I’ve at all times wished to ski one thing lovely within the Higher Ranges of the world,” Astorga stated. “Once I noticed a photograph of the ski line [Morrison and Lustenberger] had dreamt up, I used to be instantly drawn to the fantastic thing about it.”
That ski line dropped in from the summit, straight down the intestine of the Trango Tower’s huge hanging glacier. The skiers would development proper, traversing the bergschrund once more, threading a slim ridgeline over gut-churning cliffs, and ending on the ultimate, most secure pitch all the way down to the underside.
It could be nicely over 4,000 ft of vertical descent.
It took the athletes days to achieve the bottom of the mountain. The excessive camp sits simply above 17,000 ft. Once they arrived, they have been prepared for motion, primed to climb, and ready to make the historic first descent. However the climate was uncooperative. They have been pressured to attend at that altitude, suspended in anxiousness, day after day. Lustenberger stated she had abdomen illness and began feeling signs of HAPE.
However on the fourth day at excessive camp, their luck modified. Lustenberger felt higher. The climate cleared, and their second was at hand.
Making the Climb
The three alpinists took the identical strategy most climbers use to entry Nice Trango Tower. However clearly, they wouldn’t ascend the sheer rock wall with all their ski tools. So that they adopted the identical route up that they’d descend, scrambling, climbing, and breaking path by means of waist-deep snow.
Based on Morrison, the bergschrund wasn’t as extreme of an impediment this second time round. The snow was extra secure, the climate held out, and the staff traversed it with out subject.
Once they’d made it throughout, there wasn’t a lot to cease them from reaching the highest.
“Essentially the most thrilling second for me was after we climbed towards the summit, and I noticed we have been going to tug it off,” stated Morrison. “It had been such a very long time in each planning and coaching blended with so many failed makes an attempt that the success of creating it to the highest felt actually candy.”
Nonetheless, Morrison stated he reserved the complete celebration for later. Their mission wasn’t within the bag but; they nonetheless needed to ski down.
Snowboarding Nice Trango Tower
The athletes clipped into their bindings. By that point, it was late afternoon on prime of Nice Trango. The solar was setting, and it was virtually golden hour within the Karakoram mountain vary. Astorga stated it was a ravishing experience down.
They slashed their first few turns from the 20,623-foot summit in what Morrison described as “sun-affected powder.” They rappelled down the Bergshrund and punctiliously navigated the glacier’s slim summit ridge on their skis. The snow acquired choppier, punchier, and crusty as they descended — but it surely was secure the entire means. There have been no avalanche scares, no falls, no surprises in any way.
“The ski descent was wonderful,” Lustenberger stated.
Morrison and Astorga agreed — it was a extremely good run on the finish of a really lengthy day.
Once they lastly arrived again at excessive camp, it was round 10 p.m. They dropped their skis, ripped off their boots, dropped their climbing gear, took a load off, and relaxed for the primary time that day.
Morrison stated it was near midnight after they’d completed consuming dinner — and the following morning, they nonetheless had a 20-mile hike out to sit up for.
However they’d achieved their aim. The Nice Trango Tower had formally been skied for the primary time in human historical past.
Making Historical past, Shifting On: What’s Subsequent?
Unsurprisingly, all three athletes are already wanting ahead to the long run — towards new adventures. All of them wish to proceed pushing their sports activities ahead and testing their limits. Astorga, an alpine skier who considers herself extra of a climber, stated this mission impressed and motivated her to develop in new methods as a skier.
“I knew snowboarding with Lusti and Jim within the greater mountains would possible open my thoughts to new concepts, types, and alternatives,” she stated. Whereas she acknowledges that this was Lustenberger and Morrison’s imaginative and prescient, she was grateful to have had her half in it.
For Lustenberger, essentially the most highly effective a part of this journey was watching her pal, Morrison, who misplaced his climbing and life accomplice, Hilaree Nelson, in a tragic ski accident within the Himalayas final yr, make such a triumphant return to the highest of the world.
“It was actually particular, I believe, for him to have that and to carry Hilaree’s spirit with him up there,” Lustenberger stated.
All three athletes have new adventures lined up already for summer season and fall. Astorga will likely be going to India to do extra alpine climbing. Lustenberger is already dreaming up her subsequent ice and blended climbing journey. And Morrison is happy to proceed snowboarding on the earth’s highest and most distant locations.
However, no less than within the brief time period, Morrison stated, “I’ll simply embrace summer season and stroll uphill lots.”
Comply with Christina Lustenberger (@christinalusti), Jim Morrison (@jimwmorrison), and Chantel Astorga (@chantel.astorga) on their Instagrams or view their profiles on The North Face’s athlete webpage.
