Piolet d'Or

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The Piolet d'Or (French for The Golden Ice Axe) is an annual mountaineering award given by the French magazine Montagnes and The Groupe de Haute Montagne since 1991. Nominations are selected by GHM and Montagnes, and the award is chosen by a jury consisting of Guy Chaumereuil (the chief editor of Montagnes when the award was inaugurated), (until 1998) Jean-Claude Marmier (president of GHM when the award was inaugurated), the current president of GHM, the current editor of Montagnes, the previous year's winners and three members invited by GHM, one of whom becomes the president of the jury.

The criteria for the award are stated in French and translate as:

The selection of potential laureates, as well as the conditions of awarding the trophy obey a strict ethic, which is in line with the founding values of the GHM. High technical level and commitment certainly constitute the principal criteria to which the GHM members feel so attached.

The originality in the choice of the objective and the innovative nature of the manner of conducting the ascent are equally important elements of appreciation. The practice of alpinism is in effect in perpetual evolution, and this dimension should not be forgotten. It's by the crossing of certain stages that were considered impassable that mentalities have evolved, and ascents reputed to be impossible have become commonplace…

Respect for the mountains that surround us, the beauty of movement, and the spirit in which people climb those mountains are also primary conditions for the awarding of the prize. We cannot in fact pass down to future generations summits mutilated in the name of a destructive climbing style without profoundly altering the spirit itself of this activity[1]

Controversy has surrounded the award, due to the non-quantifiable nature of climbing accomplishments, and the varying interpretations of 'alpinism' and 'respect for the mountains.' Controversy has been magnified when the award recipient completed the climb in 'heavy' style, spending large amounts of time on the ascent and leaving gear behind, as in the cases of the 1997 and 2005 awards. In 2005 Ian Parnell withdrew his nomination, as did Alessandro Beltrami, Rolando Garibotti and Ermanno Salvaterra in 2006 for what might be the first ascent of the north face of Cerro Torre, and in 2008 during the selection process Garibotti asked the jury not to take into consideration the Torre Traverse first ascent he completed with Colin Haley. Marko Prezelj rejected the award in 2007 on stage to express his opposition for competition in alpinism. Marmier left the jury in 1998 explaining that "the decision of the jury has been a real disaster." [2]

2015 award

2014 award

The winners this year were Ueli Steck for his solo ascent of Annapurna South Face and Ian Welsted and Raphael Slawinski for their climb on K6 West North West Face.

  • John Roskelley was presented with the 6th Lifetime Achievement award.

2013 award

This year in an unprecedented move, the Piolets d'Or jury — Stephen Venables, Silvo Karo, Katsutaka Yokoyama and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner — awarded all six of the nominated ascents with golden ice axes. The 6 winning climbs - all in the Himalaya and Karkoram mountains - were:

  • The south pillar of Kyashar (Nepal), climbed by Tatsuya Aoki, Yasuhiro Hanatani and Hiroyoshi Manome
  • The prow of Shiva (India) climbed by Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden
  • The northeast spur of Muztagh Tower (Pakistan), climbed by Dmitry Golovchenko, Alexander Lange and Sergey Nilov
  • The southeast ridge and south face of Ogre I (Pakistan), climbed by Hayden Kennedy and Kyle Dempster
  • The southwest face of Kamet (India), climbed by Sébastien Bohin, Didier Jourdain, Sébastien Moatti and Sébastien Ratel
  • The Mazeno ridge of Nanga Parbat (Pakistan), climbed by Sandy Allan and Rick Allen.

They also recognized Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk's fair-means ascent of the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre and David Lama and Peter Ortner's first free ascent of the line.

"2012 was an exceptional year for groundbreaking ascents. The jury struggled to reduce that list [from] six," the press release read. "...In light of the very high level of the six ascents, the jury has decided to award each of the nominated ascents a Piolet d'Or."

2012 award

The winners were:

  • Mark Richey, Steve Swenson and Freddie Wilkinson (USA) for their ascent of Saser Kangri II (7,518m, India);
  • Nejc Marcic and Luka Strazar (Slovenia) for their ascent of K7 West (6,615m, Pakistan);

A third ascent has been given a special mention by the jury: Torre Egger, Argentina, by Bjorn-Eivind Aartun and Ole Lied (Norway)

2011 award

The Piolet d'Or 2011 took place in Chamonix (France) from 16 to 17 April 2011.

The winners were:

  • Yasushi Okada and Katsutaka Yokoyama on the Japanese Mount Logan expedition (south-east face of Mount Logan).
  • Sean Villanueva, Nicolas and Olivier Favresse (Belgium), Ben Ditto (USA) and Bob Shepton (UK) for the "Greenland Big Walls" expedition.[3]
  • Doug Scott was awarded the 3rd Lifetime Achievement Award.[3]

2010 award

The Piolet d'Or 2010 took place in Chamonix (France) and Courmayeur (Italy) from 8–10 April 2010.

The winners were:

2009 award

The Piolet d'or 2009 took place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (France) and Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley (Italy) on the 24th and 25 April 2009.[4]

The 2009 awardees were:

  • Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten for their first ascent in the alpine style of Tengkampoche north face (6500m), Khumbu Valley, Nepal;
  • Kazuya Hiraide and Kei Taniguchi for the first ascent of the south-west face of Kamet (7756m, India) in alpine style;
  • Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Kazuki Amano for a new route on the north face of Kalanka (6931m, India).[4]
  • Walter Bonatti was awarded the first Lifetime Achievement Award.[5]

2008 award

For 2008, the Piolet D'Or was canceled. The co-founders of the award decided to initiate a new process for selecting the nominees and winner, and the process could not be completed on a timely basis for 2008.[6]

2007 award

The 2007 Piolet d'Or was awarded on January 26, 2007 in Grenoble, France. The winners were:

Other finalist were:

List of earlier recipients

External links

References

  1. ↑ [1]. 14th Piolet d'Or. URL accessed June 25, 2006.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Piolets d'Or 2011", ukc.com, 18 April 2011
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 2009 Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement : Walter Bonatti
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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