16th Piolet d’Or Nominees Announced

Piolet d’Or (French for The Golden Ice Axe) was inaugurated in 1991 by Jean Claude Marmier, then president of the Gruppe de Haute Montagne, and Guy Chaumereuil, then editor of Montagnes Magazine. It is presented anually to the party or person completing ‘le plus beau exploit’ of the year.

This year five climbing teams have been nominated for the 16th Piolet d’Or. The award winner will be announced in Grenoble, France, in late January.

The five nominated climbs are:

1. Chomolhari, Nortwest Pillar, Marko Prezelj, Boris Lorencic (Slovenia)

2. Cho Oyu, Southwest Face new solo route, Pavle Kozjek (Slovenia)

3. Kedar Dome, Southeast Pillar, Ian Parnell and Tim Emmett (Great Britain)

4. Manaslu, Northeast Face, Denis Urubko, Sergey Samoilov (Kazakhstan)

5. Shingu Charpa, North Ridge, Igor Chaplinsky, Andrey Rodiontsev and Orest Verbitsky (Ukraine)

The annual prize has been often criticized in the past for jury decisions celebrating traditional expeditions using siege style. This was the reason why Jean Claude Marmier resigned from the organizing committee already in mid-90’s.