The Piolets d’Or aims to promote female alpinism by making either a Special Mention to an all-female expedition completing a significant ascent in the Greater Ranges, or to a female or females taking a lead role in a mixed group ascent, or a single female for major multiple mountaineering ascents through the years. In 2024 the mention is for a single female – the Italian Nives Meroi.
***
In 2023, arguably the most notable new route at altitude by a party involving a female alpinist was Diamonds on the Soles of the Shoes on the west face of Kabru South (7,318m) in the Kangchenjunga Himal.
It was the second ascent of the most southerly 7,000m peak in the world, and the first successful ascent to any of the Kabru summits from Nepal. After an initial reconnaissance, followed by a failed attempt to 5,600m, Peter Hámor, Bojan Jan, and the husband-and-wife team of Romano Benet and Nives Meroi, climbed the face alpine style in four days.
Benet and Meroi are best known for climbing on the 8,000m peaks as a two-person team, with little or no support above base camp. They have always climbed without supplementary oxygen, and mostly without fixed camps (they move up carrying their own tent). On eight of the 8,000ers they climbed the route as the first party of the season, before it had been equipped. The pair climbed Xixabangma and Cho Oyu within the space of 10 days, and Gasherbrum I, II, and Broad Peak within the space of 20 days. Meroi was the first Italian woman to climb Everest without oxygen. However, in 2009, at 7,500m on Kangchenjunga, Benet became increasingly weak and tried to persuade Meroi to continue to the summit alone. She refused, the two turned around, and Benet made it down safely with Meroi’s help. His illness proved to be severe, and it wasn’t until 2014 they were able to return to the mountain – and summit.
Benet and Meroi met at the end of the 1970s when she was 19, and they eventually married in 1989. For many years the two have lived in the Julian Alps, close to the Slovenian border. There, they have climbed many routes including the Helba on the north face of Triglav, and first winter ascents of the North Pillar (Bellini-Perissutti-Piussi) on Piccolo Mangart di Coritenza and Comici’s 10km Ledge of the Gods on Jôf Fuart. In the adjacent Carnic Alps they have repeated the infrequently climbed North Ridge Integral on the Sfinge della Grauzaria. In the Dolomites their routes include many hard classics such as the Brandler-Hasse on the north face of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, the Spigolo Strobel on the Rocchetta Alta di Bosconero, and the Lacedelli and Skotonata Galactica routes on Cima Scotoni.
Further afield, they climbed in Peru, in the Gangotri where they made a new route on the north face of 6,512m Bhagirathi II, and Xinjiang, where they attempted the then unclimbed Chinese side of Gasherbrum II. They were unsuccessful on the latter but were able to summit several previously unclimbed peaks up to 6,500m.
Unlike many mountaineers who appear to give up serious mountaineering after their journey through the 8,000m peaks, Meroi has continued to try major high-altitude ascents, witness Kabru and a more recent attempt on Yalung Peak. She also displays a very high regard for the truth. In 2010, Meroi received the Order of Merit, the highest Italian state award, and in 2016 the couple received the King Albert I Mountain Award.
