A Perfect Trip To Papsura

Trip Report

A Perfect Trip To Papsura

April 17, 2025

Splitboarding In The Indian Himalaya With Jerry Mark

Story by Jerry Mark

In the spring of 2023, Nick Russell and I were rock climbing on Donner Summit and talking about snowboarding in between taking whips and pulling on gear. The main topic of discussion was how we were long overdue for a proper snowboard expedition.

Amongst the many potential expedition destinations we brainstormed that afternoon, there was one that seemed so far-fetched we basically laughed it off. The idea was to go ride Papsura, a stunning 21,000 foot (6400 meter) peak in Northern India that had never seen a snowboard descent.

Fast forward to the fall of 2023, Nick sent me an incredible photo of the late Hilaree Nelson with Papsura in the background. Skiing the exposed couloir down Papsura’s striking west face had been Hilaree’s multi-decade passion project. After a couple unsuccessful attempts, she made the first descent of the line in 2017 with Jim Morrison and Chris Figenshau.

Nick and I had gotten in touch with Jim Morrison who offered to share the route and logistics info we needed to make an attempt at repeating their pioneering descent. Now all I needed was to secure a month off work the following spring.

My time off got approved so we set the tentative expedition window for spring 2024. Wanting to document the trip and have a solid group of four, we asked two talented filmers and ripping skiers to join the trip - Blake Gordon and Morgan Shields.

Trip planning went well and next thing we knew it was April 2024 and we were boarding a flight to Delhi with an insane amount of luggage. After collecting all our luggage we started our journey north into the Himachal Pradesh region of India. Our final destination was the city of Tosh, where we would meet up with the porters that would help us bring gear up to our basecamp.

Fifteen plus porters made the three-day trek with us to basecamp. Arriving to more snow than anticipated we set up a cozy camp that would be our home base for the next three weeks. Once basecamp was established we started shuttling gear to higher camps. Each step further up the valley offered jaw dropping new views.

Ten days after being in the country we got our first look at Papsura. Seeing the peak brought tears to all of our eyes. It was one of the most majestic peaks we’d ever seen. It was also going to be the steepest line I'd ever tried to ride. That realization brought a gut wrenching feeling to my stomach. There would be zero room for error climbing and riding this remote line. Any accident could easily be fatal.

The whole expedition we had pretty much perfect weather. Just before our push to high camp a small storm came through and coated the line with about 6 inches / 15 cm of fresh snow. Once at high camp we watched the line for a day and gave the snow a solid 48 hours to settle before we started climbing.

Summit day we woke up at 4am, shook the frost off the walls of our tent, hugged our boot liners to warm them up, and started to boil water. Just a couple hours later we were putting on crampons at the base of the line, looking up at a granite face taller than Yosemite’s El Cap.

The snow at the start of the line was edgeable wind board, but with each step higher we wondered when we might hit ice. Thankfully the face turned out to be plastered with snow. It wasn't until a couple hundred feet below the summit that we started to feel the ice under our crampons.

Front pointing through the icy section was some of the most engaging alpine climbing any of us had ever done. We escaped the ice by scrambling into a rock band that led us to the summit at 21,165 ft.

Standing on the summit brought a surreal feeling of satisfaction, but it didn’t last long knowing we had a very challenging descent still ahead of us. After a round of high fives, we started building an anchor to rappel through the ice. A couple hundred foot rappel took us down to the snow where we strapped into our boards.

Strapping in brought some comfort, though we were still staring down at some of the most critical terrain we’d ever stood on top of. Thankfully, the not-too-deep and supportable snow was ideal for steep hop turns.

The feeling at the bottom of the route was indescribable. I felt the most alive I have ever felt. Sometimes the mountains give you a screaming YES! Our Papsura trip was just that. A dream trip with perfect weather and snow conditions that culminated with a descent of a lifetime.