You could remove the whole dash and reach up through the air handler (aka heater core) opening.
Even if you break it, it's not that big a deal... It's the little clip tab things that hold the face plate to the left/right vent louver assembly that break. You could simply glue the two back together once it's out. The tabs break because the metal clips that hold the whole assembly in the dash are attached to the louver block thing... Applying force to the face plate to try to remove the whole assembly stresses those little tab/clip things. Just put as little force on the face plate as you can get away with, and you should be fine.
Here's the vents with clock, and one of the probe things I was talking about. I couldn't find my right angle probe, so I used the hook version.
Start by removing the center console cover so you can see what you're doing.
As you'll see, there is a metal clip on each side of the vent. It's located to the side of the area between the vents and the little adjuster roller thing. Don't bother with the passenger side clip... I couldn't depress it far enough to release when I messed around with this earlier.
Slip your probe tool thing between the vent and dash, and depress the clip.
Carefully pull and/or pry the driver's side of the face plate away from the dash. This is where things generally break... Just make sure the tab is fully depressed and pray.
As you pull the vent out, it will seem to get hung up on something. It's the plastic wire harness holder on the back of the vent assembly.
Reach in and pop the wiring harness out of the holder if it hasn't already fallen out, and continue pivoting the vents out. The holder will probably get hung up on the edge of the dash... Force it a little and it will slip by.
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