2017 Honoured ascents

7,046m southeast summit by British climbers Nick Bullock and Paul Ramsden. The pair climbed this icy face with four bivouacs - steep rock with thin veneers of ice in the lower section leading to an impressive arête higher up. The climbing proved excellent, reminiscent of the Colton-MacIntryre on the Grandes Jorasses, but at 6,700m it began to
snow, and the final section was somewhat hard work and avalanche prone.

Convinced that the best descent would be to follow the untouched east ridge, very steeply at its end, to a col, and then go down north to their base camp, the two set off, only to find dense cloud made travel a real navigational challenge. After another bivouac, a series of rappels, and, fortunately, a short clearing in the cloud allowing them to identify their precise position, the two reached the col, where they realized it was much safer to descend south and walk out an unknown valley.

The climb was highly exploratory and technical (ED+), and the summit the first 7,000er for both climbers.

Paul Ramsden

• UK

- lives the somewhat schizophrenic lifestyle of a mountaineer funded by his work as a health and safety consultant.
- has continued to climb in most of the world’s greater ranges since ascents of the classic alpine north faces in his teenage years
- recipient of four Piolet D’Or
- puts his success down to a very tolerant wife and family.

Nick Bullock

• UK

- a nomadic writer and a climber with an opinion, imagination and an open mind
-  enjoys reading Cormac McCarthy and poetry and participating in all aspects of climbing – winter mixed, Alpine, ice, rock and expedition.
- dislikes inequality and anything ending with an 'ism'.

The second Piolet d'Or for 2017 goes to a different type of exploration; a high peak with a north face that already had many established lines. Yet, there remained a prominent virgin buttress, both elegant and direct. For the Russians, Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry Grigoriev, and Sergey Nilov, a tried and tested team on the big mountains for half a dozen or more years, the North Buttress of 6,904m Thalay Sagar in the Indian Gangotri gave a really sustained ascent.

The climber's self-imposed ethics meant that they took no portaledge, instead relying on finding suitable places to camp. After the initial 500-600m ice slope they hit the first vertical rock buttress, where due to the wind and weather even the steepest parts were plastered with snow and ice. It took two days to climb 200m. There were good crack systems but they were chocked with ice: sometimes they could be protected by screws, other times they could be cleaned for cams. Above lay 300-400m of taxing mixed climbing at 70-80°. The crux of many routes on Thalay Sagar can be right at the top; the black shale band that protects the summit slopes. The Russians tried to climb around this 110° loose and shattered wall but were unsuccessful and were eventually forced to surmount it direct. They reached the
summit nine days after setting out on the face and from there descended the original route on the west ridge, assisted by fixed ropes placed by a recent successful Indian military expedition.

The route was named Moveable Feast and gave 1,400m of climbing at ED2, 5c A3 WI5 M7.

DMITRY GOLOVCHENKO

• RUSSIA

Dmitry was born in a family of alpinists and used to go rock climbing with his family. One of the favorite things, as a child, was to watch slides from various mountain trips when the whole family gathered in the living room, a white bedsheet was hung on the wall, the light was switched off and the show started. He joined CSKA Demchenko in 2001. His first trip with Demchenko club was in 2002 to Adyl-Su where he climbed with Sergey Nilov on the rope, who is his comrade by this day.

DMITRY GRIGORIEV

• RUSSIA

Dmitry already in his childhood saw through the window the snow-capped peaks of the Pamirs - he wanted to conquer the mountains. Becoming older, he was engaged in many types of mountain tourism: on foot, ski, water, mountain and finally mountaineering. The main achievement for him is not awards and cups, it's independently and successfully implemented projects - Alpine activities, from which all participants return alive and unharmed, inspired and with beautiful ascents behind their back. 

SERGEY NILOV

• RUSSIA

Sergey went into canoe trips after finishing school. In one of these trips he met an alpinist and joined Demchenko club. In 2001, he made his first trip to mountains with the club, and off we go…In 2007 he joined Haina Brakk (Shipton Spire) expedition organized by Denis Saveliev. Since then, he went climbing big mountains with friends year after year in Pakistan, India, Nepal. This year he reached other continent for the first time – North America, Baffin Island. Sergey – master of sports in alpinism, many-time prizewinner in alpinism, winner of 2 Russian and three World Piolets D’ors. He received the Risk.ru prize for the best ascent of the year twice.

Although this might be seen as a direct variation to the quite remarkable and possibly little known 1981 Canadian ascent of the south face of Gangapurna (7,455m) in the Annapurna
Himal, the Korean Way (1,500m ED+) warrants a special mention. Particularly notable was the speed of ascent given the highly complex approach, the difficult technical climbing above 7,000m, and the fact that it is the first new route at that altitude climbed by Koreans in alpine style.

The accomplished trio of Cho Seok-mun, Kim Chang-ho, and Park Joung-yong acclimatized by almost making the first known ascent of Gangapurna West (7,140m), a recently permitted summit with no reported attempt. After three bivouacs on the south face, and not far from the summit ridge, Park, not properly acclimatized, decided to wait. The remaining two climbed to the ridge but turned back 100m from the top, because they felt a successful summit was meaningless without a colleague's safe return.

Later, all three bivouacked at 6,000m below the start of the main difficulties on the south face of Gangapurna. After a subsequent night at 6,800m and a second at 7,100m, between which lay the crux - nine pitches of steep mixed and ice, all three reached the summit. Descent
was made over two days, rappelling the route.

CHOI SEOK-MUN

• KOREA

Year of birth : 1969

- Instructor of Mountaineering Training Institute of K.A.F.(Korean Alpine Federation)
- Summited all 14 giants without supplementary oxygen, 2013
- First ascent, a variant new route on the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat (Pakistan) in 2005, on Himjung in the Peri Himal (Nepal) in 2012, and on Batura 2 in the western Karakoram (Pakistan) in 2008
- Solo first ascent on four peaks of 6,000m in the Hinduraj and Karakoram (Pakistan) in 2003

KIM CHANG-HO

• KOREA

Year of birth : 1974

- UIAA International Route-Setter
- First ascent, a variant new route on the north face of Mt. Hunter (Alaska) in 2012
- Ascent on the Moonflower Buttress of Mt. Hunter (Alaska) in 2011 and on ‘The Nose’ route in a day, Yosemite valley in 2010
- First ascent, Batura 2 in the western Karakoram (Pakistan, 2008)
- Ascent on Torres Centrale del Paine in Patagonia, 2007

PARK JOUNG-YONG

• KOREA

Year of birth : 1976

- Rescue Team of the K.A.F.(Korean Alpine Federation)
- Solo first ascent, a variant new route on the North face of Kwangde (Nepal) in 2009
- Ascent on Makalu with O2 in Nepal (2008) and on the route ‘Ship of Fools’ of Shipton Spire (Pakistan) in 2005
- Attempt on a new route on South face, Lhotse in Nepal in 2005
- Member of the Korean sport climbing national team in 2001

The second special mention again goes to a entirely different form of exploration, this time the exploration of athleticism. Whilst there was no geographic exploration and the event was arguably a culmination of rehearsal, the sheer technical accomplishment of Americans Colin Haley and Alex Honnold, completing the Torres Traverse in a time that for more or less every other climber is incomprehensible - a single day, has greatly impressed much of the mountaineering community.

The traverse - Travesia del Torre (1,600m of ascent, 90° 6b+ C1), which had only been completed once before (in four days by Haley and Rolando Garibotti) involves leaving the col east of Aguja Standhardt and travelling south over Standhardt (2,700m), Punta Herron (2,750m) and Torre Egger (2,850m), to reach the summit of
Cerro Torre (3,102m).

In January 2015 Haley and Honnold made an attempt to complete the one-day traverse, but were forced to retreat after 22 hours only two pitches below the top of Cerro Torre, in typical Patagonian gales. Leaving the Standhardt Col sometime after 3 a.m. on January 31, 2016, they simul-climbed, short fixed and simul-rappelled for most of the journey, reaching the top of Torre Egger only nine hours and 28 minutes after leaving the col. Cracks on the north face of Cerro Torre were gushing with water and the climbers were soaked by the time they completed the very steep and slushy finish to the Ragni Route, arriving on top Cerro Torre at midnight, 20 hours and 40 minutes from the Standhardt Col. Haley and Honnold then rappelled the southeast ridge through the night in "a blur of anchors, dehydration and shivering", and continued to El Chalten, by which time they had been 45 hours without sleep.

COLIN HALEY

• UNITED STATES

Year of birth: 1984

- Grew up in Seattle
- Often in the nearby Cascade Mountains ("America's Alps") from a young age, hiking, skiing, later mountaineering, and finally rock climbing.
- Official residence in Seattle, although his time between expeditions is roughly equally divided between the Alps, the Pacific Northwest, and Patagonia.
-  Enjoys all types of climbing and skiing, and struggles to maintain a decent level of proficiency across these often quite different disciplines.

ALEX HONNOLD

• UNITED STATES

Year of birth: 1985

- Professional rock climber and hard-working athlete
- Most celebrated achievements : first and only free-solos of the Moonlight Buttress (5.12d, 1,200 feet) in Zion National Park, Utah, and the Northwest Face (5.12a) of Half Dome (2,200 feet), Yosemite, California.
- Yosemite’s first “Triple Solo” in 2012 : climbing, in succession, the National Park’s three largest faces-Mt. Watkins, Half Dome and El Capitan—alone, and in under 24 hours.
- First and only free-solo of El Capitan’s “Freerider” route (5.13a, 3,000 feet) in 2017