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San Martino di Castrozza, 8th-11th Decem…

We are very delighted to announce that the 2024 edition of the “Piolets d’Or” will be held in San Martino di Castrozza, in Trentino, on December 8th to 11th.

2024 - Jordi Corominas

Jordi is a long-time IFMGA mountain guide living in Benasque on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. Born in Barcelona, he spent his youth climbing in the Pyrenees and the...

2024 - Significant ascents

This is a representative list of significant, innovative ascents from most mountain regions of the World. It is not a list of “nominated” ascents for the Piolets d'Or and should...

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...

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...

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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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.

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.

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