Featured Image: Guillaume Baviere/Flickr Creative Commons

After three years of preparation, a month of trekking and acclimatizing and a 17-hour ascent, ski mountaineers Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison have successfully summited the 27,940-foot peak of Lhotse and descended the 7,000-foot “Dream Line” on skis–making them the first people to ski down the fourth-tallest mountain in the world.

Both accomplished ski mountaineers, each having summited Mount Everest and skied off the summit of Cho Oyu–the sixth tallest mountain in the world located 12 miles west of Everest–this is a historic day for the life partners. It is reported that they, along with filmmakers Dutch Simpson and Nick Kalisz and three Nepalese Sherpa guides, are headed down to Basecamp two for some much-needed rest.

This morning, @hilareenelson and @jimwmorrison became the first humans in history to ski the Lhotse Couloir. After summiting Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain on earth, Hilaree and Jim made a 7000 ft descent. We couldn’t be more proud. The crew is back at Camp 2 getting some much needed sleep after a 17 hour push to the summit and the ski descent. More photos to share when they’re back at base camp. A huge thank you to the team from the @khumbuclimbingcenter for being a part of this expedition. Photos by @dutchsimpson and @nickkalisz. #LhotseSki2018 #neverstopexploring

A post shared by The North Face (@thenorthface) on Sep 30, 2018 at 10:24am PDT

So proud and stoked for these two! @hilareenelson & @jimwmorrison Just climbed and skied the Lhotse couloir- a line that has evaded many skilled skiers over the years. Being the first people to ski such a major and well known line in this day and age is pretty damn cool! Thanks for capturing it @dutchsimpson & @nickkalisz Such an inspiration to us all ???????? #lhotseski2018 @thenorthface

A post shared by John Collinson (@johncollinson) on Sep 30, 2018 at 5:42pm PDT

Huge congratulations to @hilareenelson, @jimwmorrison and team for their visionary ski descent of the Lhotse couloir! Mind-blowing. I can’t wait to hear more. #lhotseski2018

A post shared by Caroline Gleich (@carolinegleich) on Sep 30, 2018 at 8:54pm PDT

Related:

Skiing Lhotse: How Adrian Ballinger & co. plan to descend the Himalayan “Dream Line”