Hornbein Couloir

The first ascent of the couloir was made on 22 May 1963, by Tom Hornbein and his partner, Willi Unsoeld, who were with the 1963 U.S.A. expedition attempting to reach the Everest summit from the Nepalese southern side by two routes.

The majority of expedition members used the same route climbed ten years earlier by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary.

This entailed negotiating the Western Cwm and the flank of Lhotse to the South Col, then up the southeast ridge to the peak.

Hornbein and Unsoeld, however, took a more challenging, different and unknown route up the west ridge from Camp 2 in the Western Cwm, traversing over the north face to ascend the steep and narrow couloir.

A team composed of Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker and Jim Morrison planned to ski down the mountain in 2023 but retreated due to bad weather and permit issues.