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…
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."
In March 2016 four 2015 ascents were honored:
North-northwest pillar and fifth ascent of Talung (7348 m) on the Nepalese-Indian border by Mikhail Fomin and Nikita Balabanov (Ukraine)
North face and first ascent of Gave Ding (6571 m) in Nepal by Paul Ramdsen and Mick Fowler (UK). The third Piolet for each.
Northwest pillar and 2nd ascent of Cerro Riso Paron (2550 m) in Chile by Jerome Sullivan (USA-France), Lise Billon (France), Diego Simari (Argentina), and Antoine Moineville (France)
East face and 2nd ascent of Cerro Kishtwar (6173 m) in India by Marko Prezelj (Slovenia; 4th ward), Hayden Kennedy (USA; 2nd award), Manu Pellissier (France), and Urban Novak (Slovenia)
-
Wojciech Kurtyka was presented with the 8th Lifetime Achievement award.
Southwest face of Thamserku (6623 m) in Nepal by Aleksander Gukov and Aleksey Lonchinskiy (Russia)
North face of Hagshu (6615 m) in India by Aleš Česen, Luka Lindič and Marko Prezelj (Slovenia)
Traverse of Fitz Roy and 6 other summits in Argentina by Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold (USA)
-
Chris Bonington (UK) was presented with the 7th Lifetime Achievement award.
Solo ascent of the South face of Annapurna (8091 m) in Nepal by Ueli Steck (Switzerland; 2nd Piolet)
West North West Face of K6 or Baltistan Peak (7282 m) in Pakistan by Ian Welsted and Raphael Slawinski
-
John Roskelley was presented with the 6th Lifetime Achievement 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 (2nd award for each)
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.
Kurt Diemberger was presented the 5th Lifetime Achievement award.
"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."
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)
Robert Paragot was awarded the 4th Lifetime Contribution 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.
Doug Scott was awarded the 3rd Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Piolet d'Or 2010 took place in Chamonix (France) and Courmayeur (Italy) from 8–10 April 2010.
The winners were:
Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko from Kazakhstan for a new route on the south-east face of Cho Oyu.
Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster from United States along with Bruce Normand from Scotland for the first ascent of the north face of the Xuelian West (Chinese Tien Shan).
Reinhold Messner was awarded the 2nd Lifetime Achievement 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.
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).[2]
Walter Bonatti was awarded the first Lifetime Achievement 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.
The 2007 Piolet d'Or was awarded on January 26, 2007 in Grenoble, France. The winners were:
Slovenians Marko Prezelj and Boris Lorencic, for the first ascent of Chomolhari's north-west pillar.
Other finalist were:
Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Sergey Samoilov, for a new route opened in alpine style on Manaslu's north-east face
Slovenian Pavle Kozjek, for leading a new route on Cho Oyu, and for submitting images of the Nangpa La killings
Ukrainians Igor Chaplinsky, Andrey Rodiontsev and Orest Verbitsky for a first ascent on the north ridge of Shingu Charpa
Britons Ian Parnell and Tim Emmett for climbing the Southeast Pillar of Kedarnath Dome
2006 Steve House and Vince Anderson for the first rapid alpine-style ascent of the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat
2005 Russian team led by Alexander Odintsov for the first direct ascent of the north face of Jannu
2004 Valery Babanov and Yuri Koshelenko for an ascent on the south face of Nuptse
2003 Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden for a new route on the north face of Siguniang (6250m) in China
2002 Valery Babanov for a solo first ascent of Meru Central (6310m)
2001 Thomas Huber and Iwan Wolf for the first ascent of the direct north pillar of Shivling (6543m)
2000 Lionel Daudet and Sébastien Foissac for the ascent of the south-east face of the Burkett Needle
1999 Andrew Lindblade of Australia and Athol Whimp (mountaineer) of New Zealand for the first direct ascent of the north face of Thalay Sagar
1998 Russian team from Ekaterinburg led by Sergey Efimov for the first ascent of the west face of Makalu
1997 Slovenians Tomaž Humar and Vanja Furlan for a new route on the east face of Ama Dablam
1996 Andreas Orgler, Heli Neswabba and Arthur Wutsher Germany for numerous new routes in the Ruth Glacier area of the Alaska Range and especially a new route on the south face of Mount Bradley
1995 Francois Marsigny of France and Andy Parkin of England for the new ice and rock route up the Esperance Col on Cerro Torre
1994 The youth high altitude expedition of French Alpine Club (median age 20 years) for ascents in the Pamir Mountains
1993 Michel Piola and Vincent Sprungli for the ascent of the east face of Torre South del Paine in Patagonia (the name of the route is "Dans l'Oeil du Cyclone")
1992 Slovenians Andrej Štremfelj and Marko Prezelj for a 3000m ascent of the South Pillar of Kanchenjunga's South Summit, 8476m, in the Himalaya
