Three ski Himalayan couloir
Descent of north-facing passage on Tibetan colossus is a first

This article by Michael Pearlman was published in the 11/2/05 Jackson Hole News&Guide
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After Exum Mountain Guides Mark Newcomb and Kent McBride, along with Driggs, Idaho, photographer Gabe Rogel, climbed to the central summit of the 26,289-foot Himalayan peak Shishapangma on Oct. 5, the trio made the first complete ski descent of the Untch couloir, which drops more than 3,400 vertical feet off the north side of the Tibetan giant.

Dangerous avalanche conditions and threatening weather prevented Newcomb and McBride from crossing the exposed ridge to the true summit, which is about 35 feet higher than the central summit.

"We saw some possibilities for going over there, but we were humbled by some approaching clouds," McBride said. "The ridge is corniced, and we were concerned about avalanche hazard."

The trip was Newcomb's second expedition to Shishapangma. He and Exum guide Stephen Koch first attempted to ski the peak in 1994, but poor weather kept them from reaching the summit. On that trip, Newcomb climbed the Untch couloir while still acclimatizing, skiing from about 24,000 feet. This time, he was committed to making a complete ski descent of the aesthetic route.

The Marmot-sponsored expedition departed from the United States on Sept. 11 and included fellow Exum guides Miles Smart and Liz Oakes; Newcomb's wife, Carina Ostberg; writer McKenzie Funk; and Boulder, Colo.-based cinematographers Brendan Kiernan and Frank Pickell. The expedition members flew to Kathmandu, Nepal, before traveling overland to Tibet, reaching Chinese base camp at 16,000 feet by Sept. 21. The team then established advance base camp, and Newcomb and McBride took advantage of good weather to quickly establish Camp 1 at 21,000 feet and set up a pair of tents at Camp 2, at 22,700 feet.

The team spent only one night at Camp 1 before returning to advance base camp for two days of rest before deciding to mount a summit attempt without the aid of bottled oxygen. With Oakes suffering from acute mountain sickness and Smart complaining of chest pains, Newcomb, McBride, and Rogel, along with Jangbu Sherpa, departed for the summit around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 5. On summit day, Newcomb, McBride, and Jangbu managed to reach the central summit at about 25,600 feet, but fatigue slowed Rogel down, keeping him about an hour behind his teammates. Though Rogel was supposed to receive assistance from Jangbu, the Sherpa pushed on to the central summit, leaving the photographer gasping for breath in the thin air.

"I was fully out of it. I threw up on the way up, right towards the top," Rogel said.

After skiing several hundred feet down a couloir located on the southwest side of the mountain, Newcomb and McBride crossed a ridge and climbed 50 feet to reach the north side of the peak, while Jangbu descended the climbing route. There they rejoined Rogel, who followed them as they traversed across the Esprit de Corps couloir, which the group had to cross in order to reach their objective, the Untch couloir. With McBride breaking trail so the team wouldn't lose altitude while crossing the dangerous 55-degree slope, they reached their ski mountaineering objective, but McBride was spent. "I ran out of gas going across that," admitted McBride. "I just felt myself deteriorate. My mind was there, but it was like I hit the wall."

Snapping into their skis, the three discovered that the snow conditions in the Untch couloir were extremely variable. The thin air and exhausting effort they had put forth on the climb added extra challenge to the descent.

"The snow varied from bulletproof windslab to breakable windslab to these plates which would break off unpredictably," Newcomb said.

Making three to four turns at a time, the three skiers descended about 500 feet before McBride began to side-slip the route due to fatigue. Even after Newcomb relieved McBride of the weight of a rope he was carrying, McBride realized his legs were unable to safely carve turns down the 40-degree couloir.

"Kent pushed it really hard. The work he was doing would have been incredibly fatiguing in the Tetons, let alone at 26,000 feet," Newcomb said. "There's a line you cross that can really drain you, and I think that's what happened."

McBride kept his skis on his feet while Rogel and Newcomb alternated belaying their partner down the route, a process that went smoothly. It took the team about two and a half hours to descend the couloir, with Rogel managing to link nine consecutive turns at one point before stopping to rest. The skiers averaged three to four turns at a time before being forced to stop for air.

"I remember trying to sit down without sliding down the couloir," Rogel said. "I was panting so hard and gasping for air. I thought that was a brave and cool call for Kent to make ­ to admit he needed a belay."

Though Smart and Oakes were prepared to make a second summit attempt in the subsequent days, weather conditions didn't cooperate. The day after skiing the Untch couloir, Newcomb climbed to 7,400 meters with Funk and Ostberg, but high winds and dropping temperatures prevented another summit bid from being launched.

McBride, who had never climbed above 22,000 feet before the trip, said the expedition was a very positive experience, and good weather helped keep spirits high.

"We had a really good crew of guys, and everyone got along really well," McBride said. "There were no egos, and we did a lot of laughing."

None of the teams that climbed on the north side of Shishapangma reached the main summit during the fall season. However, several parties that climbed the south side were able to summit. Despite being unable to reach the actual summit of Shishapangma, Newcomb considered the expedition a success.

"No doubt it would have been nice to have the main summit, too, but our goal was to ski a really cool line, and I think we really had an awesome descent down a beautiful line," he said.