86 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Above them loomed the jagged outline of Lhotse,
rising 27,940 feet, and, to the north, the shadow of
Everest. Below stretched a vast expanse of white—
ravines and gullies, frozen rivers of ice—and
beyond that Nepal. Somewhere over the horizon
lay everything the pair often tried to escape: the
cities and highways, the clatter, the dark memories.
They communicated without words, conserving
energy, James Morrison in front and Hilaree Nelson
a few steps behind. Alpine ski blades framed their
packs. They’d need to move fast at the summit;
according to Morrison’s calculations, they had
12 hours before weather arrived. If they made it,
though—if the chute was passable, if they main-
tained an elevated pace, if the winds held—they’d
have a shot at doing something no human had:
summiting and then skiing the Dream Line, a
track of snow down the western side of the peak.
Among mountaineers, it had become a Holy Grail.
Morrison and Nelson wanted to be the first to
descend it, of course, but that was only one of the
reasons they had traveled to the other side of the
world, assuming risks some peers felt too great.
Their other motives were more elemental. And
more complicated.
NEITHER WAS
really meant for this world, the one of conference
calls and Starbucks.
Morrison made his break early. During the 1980s
his family enjoyed a pleasant middle-class exis-
tence in Walnut Creek, Calif. Jim and his older
brother, John, deconstructed cardboard boxes and
slid down near-vertical hills at the base of Mount
Diablo. At one point Jim tied a rope to the base of a
toilet on the second floor of the house, then tossed
the other end out the window, trusting it would
hold as he rappelled the stucco exterior. It did.
Mountains captivated him. By his senior year
in high school Jim had finagled an “independent
study” project on the slopes in Tahoe. After trying
college—it didn’t take—he began entering extreme
skiing competitions, finishing seventh at the 1998
European championships, in Chamonix. He saw a
life unfolding: backcountry trips, sponsors, a world
devoid of traditional responsibilities.
As for Nelson, she was supposed to be a power
forward. Or at least that was her father’s dream.
Stan ran the family car dealership in Seattle and
filmed all of Hilaree’s games as she led Shorewood
High to the state tournament, raging at refs or
THEY SET OFF FOR
THE SUMMIT BEFORE
DAWN, STEPS LIT
BY A WANING MOON.
S T O R M
OFF
Bet ween
Camps One
and T wo,
conditions
became so
treacherous
that the
group’s
sherpas
turned back.
L O V E A ND
LHOTSE
