Piolet d'Or

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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]

2013 award

2012 award

2011 award

The Piolet d'or 2011 took place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (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 Favressse (Belgium), Ben Ditto (USA) and Bob Shepton (UK) for the "Greenland Big Walls" expedition.[3]

2009 award

The Piolet d'or 2009 took place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (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 USA along with Bruce Normand from Scotland for the first ascent of the north face of the Xuelian West (Chinese Tien Shan).

Year 2010 *Reinhold Messner：Lifetime Achievement

2008 award

The Piolet d'or 2008 took place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (France) and Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley (Italy) on the 24th and 25 April 2009.[4]

The 2008 awardees were: 1. Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten for their first ascent in the alpine style of Tengkampoche north face (6500m), Khumbu Valley, Nepal; 2. Kazuya Hiraide and Kei Taniguchi for the first ascent of the south-west face of Kamet (7756m, India) in alpine style; 3. Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Kazuki Amano for a new route on the north face of Kalanka (6931m, India).

2007 award

For 2007, 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.[5]

2006 award

The 2006 Piolet d'Or was awarded on January 26, 2007 in Grenoble, France. The winners were:

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[7]

List of recipients

  • 2007 Ceremony cancelled.
  • 2006 Slovenians Marko Prezelj and Boris Lorenčič, for the first ascent of Chomolhari's north-west pillar
  • 2005 Steve House and Vince Anderson for the first rapid alpine-style ascent of the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat
  • 2004 Russian team led by Alexander Odintsov for the first direct ascent of the north face of Jannu
  • 2003 Valery Babanov and Yuri Koshelenko for an ascent on the south face of Nuptse
  • 2002 Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden for a new route on the north face of Siguniang (6250m) in China
  • 2001 Valery Babanov for a solo climb of Meru Central
  • 2000 Thomas Huber and Iwan Wolf for the first ascent of the direct north pillar of Shivling (6543m)
  • 1999 Lionel Daudet and Sébastien Foissac for the ascent of the south-east face of the Burkett Needle
  • 1998 Andrew Lindblade of Australia and Athol Whimp (mountaineer) of New Zealand for the first direct ascent of the north face of Thalay Sagar
  • 1997 Russian team from Ekaterinburg led by Sergey Efimov for the first ascent of the west face of Makalu
  • 1996 Slovenians Tomaž Humar and Vanja Furlan for a new route on the east face of Ama Dablam
  • 1995 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
  • 1994 Francois Marsigny of France and Andy Parkin of England for the new ice and rock route up the Esperance Col on Cerro Torre
  • 1993 The youth high altitude expedition of French Alpine Club (median age 20 years) for ascents in the Pamir Mountains
  • 1992 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")
  • 1991 Slovenians Andrej Štremfelj and Marko Prezelj for a 3000m ascent of the South Pillar of Kanchenjunga's South Summit, 8476m, in the Himalaya

External links

References

  1. ↑ . 14th Piolet d'Or. URL accessed June 25, 2006.
  2. ↑ Parnell, Ian (July 1, 2006). "Victors of the Unwinnable". Alpinist (Jackson, WY, USA: Alpinist Magazine) 16 (Summer 2006): 58. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Piolets d'Or 2011", ukc.com, 18 April 2011
  4. ↑ "The 2009 recipients are....". Piolet d'Or. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  5. ↑ Griffin, Lindsay (January 23, 2008). "2008 Piolet D'Or Canceled". Alpinist. Alpinist Magazine. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
  6. ↑ Lambert, Erik (January 29, 2007). 'or-2007-winner-prezelj-lorencic "Prezelj, Lorencic Win 2007 Piolet D'Or". Alpinist. Alpinist Magazine. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
  7. ↑ "Sharpening the Piolet d’Or: Nominations pick fast, alpine-style climbs - and civilian courage". Mount Everest dot net. ExplorersWeb Inc. Dec 12, 2006. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.