A near-7,000-metre peak looming over the Kathmandu Valley has a new first to its name. American snowboarder Nick Russell and skiers Adam Fabrikant and Billy Haas have completed the first snowboard and ski descent of the south face of Dorje Lhakpa, a 6,966m mountain in Nepal's Langtang region sometimes called the Langtang Pyramid.

The trio summited on October 20 after climbing the face in two days, alpine style — carrying their own gear, setting their own tracks and relying on no fixed ropes. Photographed by Blake Gordon and Canadian cinematographer Leo Hoorn from a high camp, they then rode roughly 1.5 hours down the same steep line, continuing on skis and board all the way to the moraines near 4,500m.

The expedition was nearly derailed early. Base camp was reached on October 6, just after a cyclone dumped heavy snow across Nepal's mountains — and three of the five team members, Russell included, caught COVID. The weather turned out to be a gift: the fresh snow allowed a clean descent with no rappels or down-climbing, and the riders recovered just as the skies cleared.

The route crossed an icefall below Camp 1 at 4,900m, with a short but serious stretch under serac hazard — the only real crux of the approach. From a high camp at 6,000m, the face itself ran at 45-50 degrees with steeper pockets near 55. It took about 7.5 hours of two-tool crampon climbing to top out around 1:30pm. Russell called the descent the heaviest line he has ever ridden: firm, edgeable snow, serious exposure and no room for a single slip. Had conditions been slightly harder, they would have needed ropes.

There is history here, too. Legendary French snowboarder Marco Siffredi rode the mountain's west ridge in 1999 — the descent that first put the peak in Russell's mind — and died shortly afterwards on Everest's Hornbein Couloir. The south face itself was only climbed for the first time in 2021, by a Spanish team, which makes the American descent all the more remarkable.

For travellers, this is a reminder that Nepal's trekking heartlands hold more than the famous 8,000m summits. Langtang, a short drive from Kathmandu, is a superb region for high-altitude trekking and ski mountaineering, and Dorje Lhakpa's enormous south face is visible from the Kathmandu Valley on clear days. Russell's point resonates beyond the ski community: the 6,000-7,000m range still holds plenty of unclimbed and unskied objectives, and Langtang offers some of the most accessible gateways to them.

Fabrikant and Haas are no strangers to big mountains — the childhood friends climbed and skied Gasherbrum I and II without oxygen in 2024. For Russell, who aborted a Dhaulagiri attempt in 2022, this descent was the fulfilment of a two-year plan and a long-held Himalayan dream.