We chose Shishapangma because of the ski-ability of it. The route that we did was, after some research, we found it to be a better ski mountaineering route than just a purely climbing route. We originally were going to do the southwest face just as a climbing route, and after researching it, we just came to the conclusion that it was just too avalanche prone and too dangerous. And so then we started to look towards the other side of the mountain and we actually— Ed Viesturs trekked into Broad Peak with us on our permit— and we used him as a reference, and he said, 'You know, if you guys do the standard route, with your ability to ski, it's skiable.' And so we chose it based on that.

On the ski descent, Steve and I were the first on top, and we made a decision— as opposed to just skiing down because three other people did not have skis— as opposed to just strapping the boards on and skiing on down, we made the decision that we would descend as a group, even though we were on skis. And so Steve took the front, and he would ski down and wait for the other climbers to downclimb, and then I was the tailgunner, and I would follow everybody up. We just wanted to make sure that, in case there was an avalanche or something, we were looking out for each other, because it was very avalanche prone, and we just didn't want to lose anybody in the whiteout.

For me, this is Steve speaking, I had a conversation with the cameraman Pat Morrow, who's a heavy hitter in adventure travel and first man to do seven summits— unfortunately he didn't top out, he got sick— I had a conversation with him after we had set out high camp and came down for a rest before our summit attempt. And I remember looking up at the summit, and I just I told him, 'Pat, if I stand on top of this peak, I'm going to stand on top of it with skis," and it was at that point I believed we could do it, without really thinking about skiing the peak until that point with any realistic hopes of actually achieving the goal. I believed I could do it then and I knew we were going to do it.

For me, it was probably right at the beginning of the summit ridge, it was just a blizzard, and Steve was ahead of me, and I looked up and Steve stopped, and he sat down, and I just I yelled up to him, I said, 'Is that the summit?' and he just put both of his hands up, and I knew that that was the summit—and I was only 20 yards from him.

And more than realizing that we had carried the skis up there, it was just the fact that we were going to top out on the central peak of Shishapangma. It didn't really dawn on me what we had done, that we had become the first North Americans to ski this thing, until I got back down to Advanced Base Camp and I was just laying in my tent listening to tunes, and I thought, Jesus, this is cool, this is a cool thing, and I was just really proud.

The achievement for me was just getting the skis to the top. I think 21 people just this season alone brought skis to Shishapangma. One person got skis to 7700 meters, and then Steve and I got them to the top, and it was the goal to get skis to the top, but when you consider fewer than 20 people have ever done it, period, and that no Americans or North Americans have ever done it.

You know, when you set yourself out and you tell the general public: 'We're going to ski an 8000 meter peak.' They laughed and they would roll their eyes, and I just sat in my tent and I thought, you know, there were a lot of people that believed we could do it, but there were a lot of people that didn't believe we could do it, and this is sweet.