This year's Piolets d'Or jury has nominated six ascents that it will consider for an award in April. Two of these involve British mountaineers.
Jury president Greg Child commented:
‘Jury members this year unanimously identified with the spirit of exploring remote and rugged locations, of pioneering new routes in lightweight style, and in embracing a sense of commitment and teamwork.
These are the essential attributes at the heart of the Piolets d’Or, and this is what alpinism is all about. The six climbs that have been nominated by the jury for the award this year are climbs that the jury themselves would be proud to have been part of.’
The six nominated ascents, reports of which can be found in the archives on this site, are:
Foraker (5,304m), South East Face, Dracula
Dracula forces a bold line through the diamond-shaped buttress that lies between the 1976 South South East Ridge (French Ridge) and the 1990 Phelan -Sharman route, False Dawn, on Foraker in the Alaska Range. It required rapid climbing in the objectively threatened lower section and, higher, technical difficulties of M6R AI4+ A0. Above the diamond the route joins the upper section of the French Ridge and follows it to the summit for a total of 3,200m of vertical ascent. Norwegian Bjorn-Eivind Artun and American Colin Haley reached the top in 31 hours, and then continued down the Sultana Ridge and North East Icefall Route. The round trip was made in a single push of 71 hours, the two climbers taking no bivouac equipment, in order to test the limits of non-stop climbing.
Logan East Summit (c5,900m), South East Face, I-TO
I-TO (2,500m, ED+ WI5 and M6) breaches the South East Face of Logan in Canada's St Elias Mountains, a mixed wall that until this ascent was considered one of North America's greatest unclimbed challenges. There have been several previous attempts by strong American climbers. The route features a number of sustained sections, and after reaching the East Ridge, Yasushi Okada and Katsutaka Yokoyama, continued another 900m to reach Logan's East Summit. The pair made three bivouacs on the face and one on the East Ridge, which they descended from the summit for c30km to regain their base camp.
Vasuki Parbat (6,792m), West Face
Attempted once before, by Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden, the 1,600m West Face of the rarely-visited Vasuki Parbat in the Indian Gangotri Himalaya gives sustained mixed difficulties of Scottish VI, 7 (or approximately M6). British alpinists Malcolm Bass and Paul Figg reached the summit ridge after nine days on the face, and traversed the serpentine crest over the top and down the North West Ridge, returning to base camp in a round trip of 10 days. There are only two previous claimed ascents of this mountain, but the first does not seem to be recognized by Indian authorities.
Lunag I South East (6,830m), South East Face, Close the Door
The 1,200m ice and mixed line of Close the Door finishes at a small but distinct summit immediately south east of Lunag I (6,895m), accessed from the Khumbu but technically in the Rolwaling Himal of Nepal. French alpinists Maxime Belleville, Mathieu Detrie, Mathieu Maynadier and Seb Ratel climbed this fine route with two bivouacs on the face, and a third on the summit. Difficulties were IV/5 and F5. The upper section presented insecure fluted terrain, which the team had to down-climb during their descent, before making 22 rappels along the route to the Lunag Glacier.
Edgar (6,618m), East Face, The Rose of No-Man's Land
The previously untouched East Face and upper South Ridge of Edgar in Sichuan's Minya Konka Range rises a total height of 2,500m and features an objectively threatened approach couloir. This side of the mountain was the scene of a famous tragedy in 2009 when well-known Americans Jonny Copp and Micah Dash, with film maker Wade Johnson, were avalanched and killed in a similar, parallel couloir leading towards the South East Face on the left. American Kyle Dempster and Scot Bruce Normand, both of whom were awarded a Piolet d'Or last year, climbed the ice-plastered East Face and South Ridge in an eight-day round trip, with sustained difficulties of M6 and WI5 on the Face. They made a difficult descent of the South Ridge and complex South Glacier in generally poor weather.
Greenland, nine new rock routes on the West and South Coasts (Cape Farewell region)
Operating from a yacht skippered by 75-year old Bob Shepton (who completed one of the new lines) a four-man American-Belgian team climbed nine new routes in excellent style using only natural protection. On the west coast close to Upernavik these were largely huge sea cliffs. Their tour de force here was the first ascent of the Impossible Wall at Tingmiakulugssuit, where the 850m line of Devil's Brew (British E7 6c or F7c), climbed in 10 days, is most likely the hardest major rock climb achieved in West Greenland. American Ben Ditto, with the brothers Nicolas and Olivier Favresse, and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll. all from Belgium would generally traverse their summits and descend via a different route, often being collected some distance from the start by their skipper. Their feat of climbing such an array of hard, free, big walls during one expedition has probably never previously been achieved in Greenland mountaineering.
The 19th Piolets d'Or takes place from the 13th-16th April in Chamonix and Courmayeur.
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