Piolets d'Or - About our host : San Martino di Castrozza
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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About our host : San Martino di Castrozz…

www.sanmartino.com@visitsanmartino   “If you don’t know San Martino di Castrozza, you don’t know the Dolomites” claimed the well-travelled alpinist and author Gunther Langes. He was probably the best climber in the Pale di...

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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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www.sanmartino.com
@visitsanmartino

 

“If you don’t know San Martino di Castrozza, you don’t know the Dolomites” claimed the well-travelled alpinist and author Gunther Langes. He was probably the best climber in the Pale di San Martino during the years between the two world wars. Among his many important climbs in the ‘Pale’ the two most famous are Spigolo del Velo on Cima della Madonna (the well-known Schleierkante in German), which means the ridge of the veil, and the Gran Pilastro (Great Pillar) on the Pala di San Martino.

San Martino di Castrozza is situated in the heart of what is perhaps the wildest part of the Dolomites, at 1,450m. The Pala Group (in Italian, Pale di San Martino), which is the broadest group of the Dolomites, fascinates visitors with its unique skyline. This is recognized all over the world as a symbol of the Dolomites. The most important peak is the Cimon della Pala (3,184m), also known as “the Matterhorn of the Dolomites” because of the similar shape when observed from the Passo Rolle. The Cimon della Pala, first climbed by English alpinists, Francis Fox Tuckett and Edward Robson Whitwell, is not the highest peak of the Pale, which is Vezzana (3,192m).

It was thanks to the travellers (at first, mainly English geologists and botanists, then later alpinists from Britain, the Netherlands and Germany), who came to the Dolomites in the second half of the 19th Century with the aim of discovering new peaks, that San Martino di Castrozza was born as a tourist destination, with shepherds and hunters working as alpine guides. At the time, these were the only people who could take visitors into the mountains, knowing them better than anyone else. The first alpine guide in this area was Michele Bettega, followed by Giuseppe Zecchini, Antonio Tavernaro, and Bortolo Zagonel. They became recognized as the ‘Eagles of San Martino’, almost celebrities for wealthy climbing tourists. Michele Bettega, for example, climbed the Cimon della Pala more than 250 times. San Martino di Castrozza also was appreciated by famous visitors, such as Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, who wrote a novel ‘Die Fraulein Else’ located precisely in San Martino, the King of Belgium, and Dino Buzzati.

San Martino di Castrozza is an ideal basecamp in all seasons for mountain activities such as hiking, biking, climbing, running, orienteering and canyoning. Here, the spirit is authentic and the hospitality unique.

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

They support us

Interested in supporting us ? Please ask for our partnership information...

2025 Organizers

 

The Piolets d'Or will be held in San Martino di Castrozza, the first location in the Dolomites to host this prestigious event, thanks to the support of Trentino Marketing, the Municipality of Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, the Primiero Community, FPB Cassa di Fassa Primiero e Belluno, ACSM Group, “le Aquile” of San Martino di Castrozza, the local tourism stakeholders, the Trento Film Festival, and under the patronage of the Dolomites UNESCO Foundation.