UKC

Have just read that this year's Piolet d'Or has gone to Ueli Steck (Swiss, Annapurna)) & the Canadians Raphael Slawinsky & Ian Welsted (K6)

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2014/03/30/alpinisme-deux-canadiens-et-...

Surprised this hasn't been reported here

In reply to Doug:

Hmmm, I think the lack of interest might just explain it. I must admit that giving someone an award for what they've done on their holidays seems a bit wanky to me.

What IS surprising is the lack of interest on C2C too... for the moment, anyway.

In reply to jon:
Non event and never should have been one even though I am a member of the main organizing body

In reply to jon:

I don't understand what you're saying. I thought that the P d'O had cleaned itself up and was now respected, or perhaps jcw is implying something else...


Go on then!

In reply to Solaris:

Respected or not I've always thought it strange to award someone for going out and having fun. It's not like the winners set out hoping that they might win the thing (or is it...?).


Well OK, someone posted the news on C2C this morning at 10:35 and up to now there's been zero interest in it. This, on the other hand seems more popular: http://www.camptocamp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=253607&p=1

In reply to Solaris:
No, I am certainly not implying anything underhand. All I am saying is that the whole idea was misconceived from the start and after the blarney this is becoming quite evident. Last year's decision made that quite clear.

In reply to jon:

It's quite sad that folk are seriously saying whatever you do you should have a 'selfie' and GPS tracker or else we don't believe you. As you say what's wrong with going out and having fun!
I am surprised there's not more on UKC though or maybe they are more interested in boulder problems and hard sport climbs rather than true adventure?

In reply to jon:

But it's not their holidays, for many of them. It's Steck and Auer's full time job and this is just one of the industry awards, as in any industry. It's representative of the climbing tradition that amateurs are able to participate and succeed in there with the pros, unlike most 'sports'.


Because there are no French finalists? The national/political partisanship of the PdO has to be experienced to be believed. It's ridiculous, but such is Europe.

In reply to jcw:


Well, last year's decision was quite popular, especially with people who were there at the awards. The main dissent seemed to come from the two media/magazine editors, some other industry interests and others generally against the guy who runs the operation,

Anyway, the nature of it means the organisers really can't win any popularity contest. Last year they tried to make everyone happy and it backfired and this year in making an actual selection, clearly at least one 'loser' is publicly not happy. This morning on Facebook, Auer posted this:

"If a member of the Piolet d'Or Jury sees it critically why my brother Matthias never reported about his climbs until now, it´s time to change something. This is only one sign of how superficially they were dealing with our adventure on Piolet d'Or. In fact only George Lowe (jury president) and Catherine Destivelle (jury member) understood the challenge of climbing Kunyang Chhish East. But the teardrops of George and Catherine, when they apologized to us for the final decision are meaning a way more, than the headlines of the newspapers tomorrow. Now I know why Marko Prezelj rejected his award back in 2007. Congrats to Ueli, Ian and Raphael for the golden ice axe 2014 and Marek, Graham and Mark for the nominations."

Disappointing from Auer really, as I personally thought their KCE climb was the most deserving, but whinging about the result and criticising the process afterwards is poor form.

In reply to Damo:

Whereas one of the winners has just written this good short article:

http://adventureblog.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/30/why-we-climb-piolet-...

"The Piolet d’Or is about sharing our experiences as alpinists with a wider audience, trying to learn about the human experience through adventure." - Ian Welsted

In reply to Damo:

>This morning on Facebook, Auer posted this:

>In fact only George Lowe (jury president) and Catherine Destivelle (jury member) understood the challenge of climbing Kunyang Chhish East.

He actually said that when Denis Urubko was on the jury? How many living climbers have put up more alpine-style ascents of new routes on 8000m peaks? Urubko's proposed but still-unclimbed line up the north face of K2 has to be one of the most audacious undertakings yet conceived.

In reply to Damo:


Aha, you noticed...!

In reply to Epsilon:


He said it, but he might regret it. Facebook is like that

How many? OTTOMH, probably only Loretan?

If the K2 line is what I think it is, yes. Logical but horrendous. Urubko's routes on Cho Oyu, Manaslu and the proposed Kanch one for this year are just ridiculous. The Broad Peak line was more sane and still a great route. He's a machine, and still climbing hard - more than you can say for most who finish the 14x8K. What that actually says about him, I don't know...

In reply to jon:


Well, they got an official Honourable Mention, appended to the list. But given the discrepancy between their time and Steck's, and that they had an epic where he cruised it, I'm not sure having them on the list is a favour. Of course Steck put it all down to conditions, and he's no doubt right - but 7 days difference!

In reply to jon and jcw:

Thanks, both. I don't follow all this as closely as the other posters on this thread, but having read a bit more I agree that Prezelj's comments still seem apposite. Respect though to those who make such good use of their holidays.

In reply to Damo:


Sorry, that's not enough. Anything short of first place is a failure.

In reply to Damo:

Yes, I guess you're right about this. I suppose my comment about awards for holidays was more aimed at what the Pd'O was originally. (I'd forgotten that it dates back to 1992 - had someone asked me I'd have guessed at 2000 - which just shows my interest in it!) Maybe the level of disinterest we're seeing now is down to the now commercial nature of the whole thing. Oscars for the boyz.

In reply to jon:

Precisely.