2023 Awarded ascents

© Quentin Roberts

First ascent of the south-southeast spur of Jirishanca, Cordillera Huayhuash, via Reino Hongo (1,000m, M7 AI5+ 90°) from July 21-23. Descent by the east buttress and lower southeast face

It goes without saying there is real commitment and adventure to be found outside the Himalaya. This year it would be impossible for the Piolets d’Or not to highlight a route from the Andes of South America, where in 2022 several outstanding ascents were completed. The Cordillera Huayhuash is home to very spectacular peaks, including Jirishanca, one of the highest summits in the range and one with no easy route to the top. It was one of the last Peruvian 6,000ers to be climbed.

Canadians Alik Berg and Quentin Roberts chose the coveted line of the south-southeast spur, which rises to a convoluted ridge of enormous snow and ice mushrooms before meeting the vertical, ice-smeared limestone of the south headwall. Past attempts by various parties to reach this headwall by climbing the face further left of the spur had ground to a halt in impossible snow.

Berg and Roberts moved in pure alpine style, carrying sacs on sustained, technical, and previously untouched terrain. Due to heavy snowfall on the rock spur shortly before setting out, and not enough good weather for it to clear properly, the two made the decision to climb five or so pitches up the lower spur and then wrap around the steeper section above onto the south flank. Here, they would climb steep mixed terrain to regain the spur below the convoluted snow/ice ridge shaped like a dragon’s back. They completed this section on day one, the ridge itself on day two, and the crux headwall on day three. The latter provided unprotected pitches that were sometimes as difficult and potentially as dangerous for the second as the leader. When they pulled onto the summit – a rare ascent of the mountain from the east – they were amazed to be greeted by two Americans, who had climbed a route on the right side of the southeast face. Berg and Roberts were subsequently able to follow the American’s descent of the east buttress and lower southeast face, which they achieved with one more bivouac.

The jury felt this to be an inspiring line, direct to the summit, and climbed in exactly the style and with the spirit of adventure that the Piolets d’Or wishes to promote.

Alik Berg

• Canada

Living in Canmore, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, Alik (aged 35) describes himself as an "obsessive climber". From a very young age, roped to his father, he was on the big walls, climbing the famous Grand Wall of Squamish at the age of 10, then trying his hand at aid climbing in Yosemite (around 20 routes on El Capitan up to A5). It was in the paradise of glacier and mixed climbing close to Canmore that he was also able to try his hand at dry-tooling, so useful on the big alpine faces. He works as a high-angle industrial access technician to fund future climbing trips. His friend and fellow climber Ian Welsted describes him as, "having that special calm demeanour that comes of hanging off tiny pieces of metal poked into irregularities in granite: one has to coax these astounding facts out of a self depreciating talent." In July 2017, he opened two new routes, all-free, in the Cordillera Blanca: The Devil's Reach Around (900m, 5.10 M6 90°) on the east face of Chacraraju Este with Quentin Roberts, then Nadie Sabe Nada (1,000m, 5.9 M6 85°) on the north face of Hualcán, this time in the company of Aritza Monasterio.

 

Quentin Roberts

• CANADA

Born in England to a Canadian father and an Austrian mother, Quentin was destined to travel the world. From an early age, he began climbing in Wales with his father, then in the Alps, before moving to South Africa, where he also developed a passion for board sports such as surfing and skateboarding. But it was in British Columbia, Canada, while obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering, that his passion for climbing in all its forms was truly born. Since then, he has become a hunter of hard new alpine lines, such as the aforementioned Devil's Reach Around on the east face of Chacraraju Este. He is also known for his free solos, such as Striving for the Moon (1,400m, AI6) on Mount Temple (Canada), Grand Central Couloir, (AI4, M6) on Mount Kitchener (Canada), and the famous Exocet (5.10- WI5+) on Cerro Standhardt (Patagonia). These, he regards as personal energy releases. Among his friends and climbing partners, he’s known for his tactfulness, strength, and positive energy.

 

©Paul Ramsden

First ascent of Jugal Spire (6,563m), Jugal Himal, via The Phantom Line (1,300m, ED) on the north face, from April 25-29. Descent was effected by traversing the mountain and descending previously unclimbed ground to the south and west.

The Jugal Himal holds the nearest high mountains to Kathmandu but is infrequently visited. Desperate to climb after being curtailed by COVID-19 for two years, Tim Miller and Paul Ramsden from the UK arrived in Nepal in early spring. During the whole of the expedition it would rain, hail, or snow for at least part of every day.

After a four-day approach to base camp, an acclimatization outing on the west ridge of Dorje Lhakpa allowed them to see for the first time the north face of Peak 6,563m (later named Jugal Spire), a huge sweep of very steep granite. Although seemingly the preserve of big wall climbers, careful inspection showed a steep ice line cutting diagonally through the face from bottom right. While most of this line had a suggestion of ice, there was a rock wall at around one-third height that appeared steep and blank.

After the initial day, which involved sections of unprotected and delicate mixed climbing leading to a comfortable bivouac, they reached the steep rock wall. Surprised, they found a series of chimneys hidden behind a line of flakes that gave intense Scottish-style climbing. The following night spindrift avalanches ripped the tent and part of their time was spent standing in the dark until spindrift eventually subsided. The third night was more pleasant, though by now the tent was no longer usable as such, and the two just hid inside the fabric. The fourth bivouac, close to the top of the strenuous bullet-proof ice of the summit slopes, was inside a natural rock cave. Next day, after 37 pitches from the bottom of the face, they crossed the summit, rappelled from Abalakovs to the south, then dropped west down a broad gully to make their last bivouac where it met the glacier. They named the route The Phantom Line due to the ephemeral nature of the ice, and the way the route appeared and disappeared under different light conditions when viewed from a distance. Ramsden felt it was one of the best routes he’d climbed.

©Victor Saucède

The first ascent of Pumari Chhish East, Hispar Muztagh, via The Crystal Ship (1,600m, 6b A2 M7) on the south face and upper west ridge, from June 25-29. The route was rappelled.

 Since 2007, Pumari Chhish East, the lowest and probably the most technically difficult of the Pumari Chhish group, north of the Hispar Glacier, had received five attempts from the south. For the sixth known attempt, Christophe Ogier, Victor Saucède, and Jérôme Sullivan from France opted for the middle-left of the four large rock pillars, a line envisaged in 2009 by three Canadians, who climbed the initial snowfield before retreating due to illness.

The three French climbers chose to go early, making the approach in May with a view to attempting the face in June, when the alpine terrain would still be well-frozen. However, it snowed on 26 days of their 27-day wait at base camp, though during this period they acclimatized by spending a night on nearby Rasool Sar (5,980m). They then received a forecast for a seven-day weather window, and after allowing one day for the face to shrug off recent snow, set off, climbing the initial 700m snowfield at night.

On the 700m pillar above they employed big wall techniques, with the leader hauling while the two seconds jumared. Aid was often used to surmount overhangs or to remove large snow formations plastered onto the cracks, but generally they climbed as free as possible under the conditions. The first three bivouacs were poor, exposed, and uncomfortable, but the fourth day took them through the remaining difficulties, which included two vertical 6b rock pitches at 6,600m (led in rock shoes), to a relatively spacious shoulder. Next day they climbed through the summit mushroom and were on top at 10 a.m. Waiting at their last bivouac until mid-afternoon, when the sun disappeared from the face, the three began rappelling the route, reaching the snowfield at nightfall and advanced base around midnight.

The jury felt this to be an elegant line, a line of strength that was full of uncertainty, on one of Pakistan’s big unsolved problems. It is not the easiest option on the mountain, but the steepness and sustained high level of difficulty made it one of the safest, rising almost directly to the summit. The ascent was very much a collective effort, displaying great team spirit in line with the Piolets d’Or Charter.

Christophe Ogier

• FR

 

Christophe is both a mountain guide and scientist from Haute-Savoie. He is preparing a thesis in glaciology at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich, and for several years has been studying the evolution of alpine glaciers in the face of climate fluctuations and current warming. Prior to Pumari Chhish East, Christophe had climbed in Patagonia. During the austral summer of 2020, together with Slovenian Gašper Pintar, he completed the fifth ascent of the "W" traverse of the three Paine Towers, starting with the Monzino on Torre Norte and finishing up the Aste on Torre Sur. During the same season, he was also one of the French team who climbed the Ragni Route on Cerro Torre with Fabian Buhl, enabling Buhl to make the first paragliding descent after having climbed a route to the summit.

Victor Saucède

• FR

 

Originally from the Pyrenees, Victor started climbing indoors before discovering the mountains with the French Alpine Club. He went on to join the departmental teams, then the regional teams, and finally the National Men's Mountaineering Team of the French Mountaineering and Climbing Federation. It was during this period that he developed a desire to introduce others to the mountains, realising on each outing that the enthusiasm and wonder of the participants at the beauty of the landscape gave him even greater pleasure. "When I was very young, I already had a strong idea in my head: to make a living out of it, without realising what it would involve. Now I've moved to the Mont Blanc Massif, where I'm lucky enough to be able to accompany groups from one summit to the next, discovering some exceptional terrain.” In June 2021, with Jérôme Sullivan and two other companions, Victor discovered the mountains of Pakistan. Visiting the remote Kondus valley, he made an alpine style first ascent of Harvest Moon (1,600m, WI6 M6) on Dansam Peak West (or K13, 6,600m)

Jérôme Sullivan

• FR

 

Jérôme divides his life between his job as a mountain guide and his “hobby” of climbing. In recent years these have taken him to many of the mountaineering and climbing playgrounds, but “the boundary is thin and often gets lost". His signature can be found in the Alps (In 2012, the first free ascent of the southwest pillar of the Dru since its collapse, and the first ascent of Mad Max on the east face of the Grandes Jorasses), in Morocco (first ascents of major trad routes at Taghia), in Patagonia (first ascents of El pillar del sol Naciente - 1,000m 7b, A1, M6, WI6 - on Cerro Murallon in 2012, Hasta las webas – 1,000m, ED – on Cerro Riso Patron in 2015, and La Milagrosa, - 1,200m, 6a A3 M7 - on the east face of Cerro San Lorenzo in 2018), in the Revelation Mountains of Alaska (first ascent of Pyramid Peak via Odyssey – 1,100m, 6b A1 M7 6b 90° - in 2014), and South Greenland (first ascent of Metrophobia – 1,700m, 7a A2+ 120° ice – on Apostelen Tommelfinger, with a 340km approach and return by kayak in total autonomy). "Curiosity is the word that defines me, curiosity to discover mountains and the humans who love them."

©Ramona Waldner

First ascent of the east face of Northern Sun Spire (1,527m), Renland, East Greenland, by Via Sedna. Top of face reached on August 7 and the route then rappelled.

***

A Special Mention is given to the women’s sailing and climbing team that made the first ascent of Via Sedna (780m of climbing, 16 pitches, 7b+ A1) on Northern Sun Spire. Starting on June 20 from La Rochelle in France on the 15m yacht Northabout, skipper Marta Guemes (Spain) and crew Caroline Dehais and Alix Jaekkel (both France), and Maria Sol Massera (Argentina), plus climbers Capucine Cotteaux (France), Caro North (Switzerland), and Nadia Royo (Spain), and photographer Ramona Waldner (Austria), spent six weeks negotiating bad weather and difficult pack ice before finally reaching the coast of Renland. Due to these delays, they had only 10 days in which to climb before having to set sail again.

Cotteaux, North and Royo spent two days climbing steep difficult terrain and fixing 300m of rope, the leader sometimes resorting to aid while the followers mostly free climbed. With one-and-a-half days now left before a predicted snowstorm, the three set off up the ropes, added four more difficult pitches, spent the night in portaledges, and the following morning, after a further six pitches of more reasonable 6a-6b, reached the upper south ridge. Natural gear was used throughout. Incoming weather persuaded them not to make the easy scramble to the summit (the top section of the 2019 first ascent route), and by the time they regained the base of the wall it was raining. After four more weeks of sailing, and total travel of 4,000 nautical miles, they were back in France.

Not only was this a fine adventure by a self-contained, international group of women, but also the expedition itself had minimal carbon footprint. It forms a representative example of relatively "low impact" expeditions.

Capucine Cotteaux

• FR

Capucine discovered climbing at the age of 20 in Fontainebleau after a career as a high-level gymnast. It was love at first sight: six months later, she moved to Montpellier and began climbing every day of the year! Today, aged 35, she combines her climbing instructor's diploma with that of a social worker, helping people in social difficulty or with disabilities discover rock climbing in all its forms. Sport climbing up to 7c OS, 8b RP, Capucine more than anything loves long routes, either sport or adventure, on crags or in the mountains - from Mont-Blanc to the rest of Europe (Corsica, Greece, Sardinia, Spain, Turkey, Czech Republic, etc.), as well as the cracks of Utah and California. Passionate about nature, adventure, and the wonderful places she discovers and experiences, she also likes, as on Northern Sun Spire, to "lead the way, not just be a consumer, searching for pure, instinctive, intuitive, clean climbing, without leaving a trace"

Caro North

• Switzerland

Now 31, Caro is a mountain guide and for a long time has been climbing and mountaineering in all their different forms. At the age of 16, she was just a few metres short of the summit of Aconcagua. As a member of the German Alpine Club's first women's expedition team between 2011 and 2013, she climbed in Albania, Armenia, Iran, and India, and discovered Patagonia. She returned to the latter in 2015, as part of the first women's team to free-climb Cerro Torre. In the next few years, she visited Antarctica by yacht, Patagonia again, Alaska and the Kishtwar Himalaya (India). In 2020, she crossed Switzerland by bike from east to west with Ines Papert, linking significant multi-pitch rock faces. Respect for nature and the environment is the basis for her passion, and it's in her interest to protect them, reflected in her degree in environmental studies from Lausanne University. Commenting on the Northern Sun Spire, she says: "It was exactly the challenge we were looking for”.

Nadia Royo Cremer

• Spain

Although she started climbing quite late, at the age of 26, Nadia has since made up for lost time. A passionate trad climber, she has explored rock faces in South Africa, Patagonia and Bolivia. Her curiosity and thirst to learn about the environment around her, led to a Masters in environmental studies. After joining the EPAF (Equipe Pyrénéenne d'Alpinisme Féminine), she is now a climbing instructor in the south of France. Talking about the expedition to Greenland and the opportunity to combine sailing and climbing, she says: "In 2018, I'd taken part in a month-and-a-half expedition to Patagonia with some girls, and I'd already travelled a lot. But never by boat! Sailing has been a dream of mine since I was 12"