Piolets d'Or - Jannu (7,710m)
The 2025 edition of the Piolets d’Or will be held for the second time in San Martino di Castrozza, in Trentino, from December 9th to 12th !

2025 Awarded ascents & Special mention

The International Jury has chosen to make three Piolets d'Or Awards (to be announced shortly) and one Special Mention. These are, in no particular order :

2025 Special Mention for Female Mountain…

This Special Mention is intended specifically to promote female alpinism. It recognises a remarkable all-female ascent from the previous year, or a female alpinist for several achievements in the previous year(s), or...

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2024 - Significant first ascents

This is a representative list of significant, innovative ascents from most mountain regions of the World. Whilst not every climb listed here would be considered eligible for a Piolet d'Or...

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2025 International Technical jury

Ethan Berman United States of America - age 34 A key figure in contemporary American alpine style, Ethan gained international recognition in 2021 when he was awarded a Piolet d'Or for a...

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Portraits & Tributes

Tribute to Hiraide and Nakajima

©Piotr Drożdż “For me, climbing is about carving out my own path, not following somebody else’s route.”Kazuya Hiraide The west face of K2 (8,611 m) is one of those legendary walls shrouded...

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Tribute to Sergey Nilov and Dmitry Golov…

This summer of 2024 will go down as one of the cruellest for the alpine community. We learned of the disappearance of the famous Japanese climbers Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro...

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Tribute to Archil Badriashvili

©Piotr Drożdż Georgian Archil Badriashvili died on 10 August 2024 at the age of 34. He was with some companions on Shkhelda (4,388 m), not far from Ushba, in the Caucasus...

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Tribute to François Labande

"Mountaineering is a way of life, a philosophy of life, even if I've always refused to consider that in the mountains I was on an island away from society."  The mountaineer Born...

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©Alan Rousseau

First ascent of Round Trip Ticket (2,700m, M7 AI5+ A0), a partial new route on the north face and northwest ridge of Jannu, Kangchenjunga Himal, from October 7-12. Descended route.

Jean Franco, leader of the first expedition to attempt Jannu (a.k.a. Kumbhakarna), said the true north face was “one of the highest walls on earth. No one will ever go that way”. Inevitably, in 2004, he was proved wrong. In that year a large team of Russian mountaineers, on their second attempt in two years, climbed what the legendary Swiss, Erhard Loretan, who had previously made two attempts himself, described as “currently the greatest challenge in the Himalaya”. Their climb was both outstanding and highly controversial. The sheer headwall, which begins above 7,000m, was likened to the west face of the Dru, and the team surmounted difficulties of 5.10d A3+ M6. However, they received widespread criticism of their style: the climbers had sieged the wall, spending 50 days fixing nearly 3,400m of rope and having taken emergency oxygen.

In 2021, Jackson Marvell and Alan Rousseau set up base camp on the north side of Jannu with the intention of repeating the Russian route in alpine style. However, scoping the headwall, they saw another possible line, slanting right to reach the upper northwest ridge at a little over 7,500m. They decided to try this, not least because they would be on pristine ground and not following large amounts of old rope and hardware. The northwest ridge had been climbed in 2007 by Valery Babanov and Sergey Kofanov in alpine style, the final section to the summit coinciding with the 1983 French Route, which reached this point via the southwest spur. This duo had a good view of the north face, on which Kofanov commented, “Perhaps someday a pair will climb a direct route on the north face in alpine style, but they’ll need to accept the likelihood that they’re buying themselves a one-way ticket.”

Marvell and Rousseau reached 7,200m, gaining considerable knowledge of the route. They returned in 2022 with the addition of Matt Cornell. Marvell had to leave early and the remaining two were only able to reach 6,500m due to consistently high winds and cold temperatures

All three returned in 2023, having refined their climbing system while putting up Aim for the Bushes (1,525m, AI6 X M6) on Mount Dickey, Alaska, one of the most significant new routes climbed outside Asia during the year. On October 7, they left base camp with a new, very lightweight, three-man sleeping system that included two inflatable G7 pods (portaledges). They also carried a forecast of seven days’ fine weather.

Climbing through the initial rock buttress, followed by 300m of icefall, they reached and then climbed the steep 1,100m ramp system, which involved challenging alpine terrain over snow, ice and mixed, to arrive at around 7,100m, just below their 2021 highpoint, on the afternoon of the 9th.

Above 7,200m they slanted right up new ground on the steepest section of the wall to reach a full hanging bivouac at 7,300m. On the morning of the 11th, they passed the crux, a more or less vertical thin ice smear followed by convoluted mixed climbing. They bivouacked one pitch below the northwest ridge at 7,500m. Next day, they finished up the 1983 French Route, reaching the summit in late afternoon.  They regained the pods by 11 p.m., and on 13th rappelled the route, mostly from Abalakovs, arriving at base camp around midnight.

Marvell and Rousseau knew that several of their fingers were frostbitten. Discussing options on the following day, they realized that walking out through the jungle for five days, and then driving for three more days to reach Kathmandu, would present a significant risk of infection. They were also told by friends in the USA that a clinic in Kathmandu offered an intravenous treatment, which if administered within 72 hours might reverse some of the injuries. They opted to call for a helicopter. The subsequent treatment eventually limited the damage to the loss of the tip of one little finger for both climbers.

The jury was unanimous: this was an extraordinary ascent that has taken technical alpine style climbing at high altitude to a new level. A combination of great teamwork, visionary strategy, technical ability and experience, together with an evolution in equipment, has led to a new chapter in the history of Himalayan ascents and will be an inspiration for future generations.

What are the "Piolets d'Or" ?

A celebration of mountaineering

The purpose of the Piolets d'Or awards is to raise awareness about the year's greatest ascents across the world.  They aim to celebrate the taste for adventure, the bravery and sense of exploration that lie behind the art of climbing in the world's great mountain ranges. The Piolets d'Or draw their inspiration from mountaineering's rich history.  They are a celebration of a sense of partnership and solidarity, of shared experiences, and reward individual or collective achievement.

The Spirit of Modern Alpinism

More than just the recognition of a performance, the Piolets d'Or celebrates passion, spirit and values. The spirit of the Piolets d’Or draws its inspiration from the history of alpinism and the authenticity of true team spirit. The style should take precedence over the conquest of an objective.  Success is no longer about getting to the summit at all costs, employing all possible financial and technical means, (oxygen, fixed ropes, doping products, etc) or large-scale human resources (high-altitude porters or sherpas). The Piolets d’Or event encourages imagination in searching for innovative routes using a maximum of economy of means, making use of experience and respecting man and nature. The Piolets d’Or is attached to making climbing a shared and valued richness all over the world, capable of attracting the best of human ambitions whilst encompassing moral values and edifying behaviour. The Piolets d'Or event is therefore a celebration of an ethical alpinism, rich in emotion.

 

 

Les Piolets d'Or

Piolets d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award

In 2009, the first Lifetime Achievement Piolet d’Or was awarded to Walter Bonatti.  His style of mountaineering perfectly reflected the spirit of thePiolets d’Or.  He became a sort of godfather to those who would receive this award after him. In honour of the man and his spirit, it has been renamed the “Piolet d’Or Lifetime Achievement, Walter Bonatti Award”.

The Career Piolets d'Or was created to reward a career where the spirit has inspired the following generations, in the sense of criteria set down by the convention.
Recipients of the Piolet d'Or Career :
2009 : Walter BONATTI
2010 : Reinhold MESSNER
2011 : Doug SCOTT
2012 : Robert PARAGOT
2013 : Kurt DIEMBERGER
2014 : John ROSKELLEY
2015 : Chris BONINGTON
2016 : Wojciech KURTYKA
2017 : Jeff LOWE
2018 : Andrej ŠTREMFELJ
2019 : Krzysztof WIELICKI
2020 : Catherine DESTIVELLE
2021 : Yasushi YAMANOI
2022 : Silvo KARO
2023 : George LOWE
2024 : Jordi COROMINAS

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