Piolets d'Or - 2024 Special Mention for Female Mountaineering
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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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.

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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.

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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