Piolets d'Or - The 2026 Piolets d'Or

Piolets d'Or 2026 in Oisans

Piolets d'Or 2026 in Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans and La Bérarde

 

The Piolets d’Or return to Oisans, in the Haut-Vénéon, from 21 to 25 October 2026, hosted by Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans and La Bérarde.

2026 Awarded ascents & Special mention

The International Jury of the Piolets d’Or has selected four outstanding ascents completed in 2025 to receive this year’s main awards. They are presented below in no particular order :

Ultar Sar (7,388m), Pakistan Karakoram

©Berman The first ascent of the southeast pillar of Ultar Sar, Batura Muztagh, via Shooting the Moon (3,100m, M5 WI4), June 6-11. The climbers descended the same route, reaching the base...

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Aikache Chhok (6,673m), Pakistan Karakor…

©Price The first ascent of the northwest face of Aikache Chhok, Batura Muztagh, via Secrets, Shepherds, Sex and Serendipity (3,000m, M7 A2+ AI5), October 12-20. The climbers traversed the mountain, descending...

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Yerupajá Grande (6,634m), Peruvian Andes

©Thom95 The first complete ascent of the east spur and east ridge via The Essence of Commitment (1,400m, 6c+ M6+ 95°) to the main summit of Yerupajá, Cordillera Huayhuash, followed by...

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Jannu East (7,460m), Nepal Himalaya

©Marot The first ascent of Jannu East, Kangchenjunga Himal, via Le Sommet des Pieux (2,300m, M6 WI5) on the north face and east ridge, October 12-15. The climbers rappelled and downclimbed...

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2026 Special Mention for Female Mountain…

East meets West: Tiphaine Dupérier in Nepal.©Boris Langenstein The Piolets d’Or aims to promote women’s alpinism through a Special Mention, which may recognise an all-female expedition completing a significant ascent in...

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2026 - Peter Habeler

©P.Habeler ”The mountain has always been my friend, never my enemy.” Peter Habeler was born in 1942 in Mayrhofen in the Zillertal, a valley in the Austrian Tyrol. From childhood onwards, encouraged...

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2026 International Technical jury

  Lise Billon France – age 38. The first ascent of the northeast pillar of Cerro Riso Patron, a particularly isolated and inhospitable peak in Patagonia, was only the second route to be...

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The Piolets d'Or return in Oisans

Ten years after the 2016 edition in La Grave-La Meije we are delighted to announce that the Piolets d'Or are returning to the Oisans territory, this time into the heart...

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Portraits & Tributes

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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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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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