©Ramona Waldner
The Piolets d’Or wishes to promote female alpinism, with the aim of inspiring future generations of female climbers. It also realizes the difficulty in finding a universally accepted mechanism for doing so.
From time to time, it makes one or more Special Mentions. These are not Piolets d’Or, but a recognition bestowed on an ascent that is deemed notable for different reasons, yet still fitting with the core values of the Piolets d’Or Charter.
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"
