The Piolets d'or 2011 ceremony was held in Chamonix, France over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of April. The prestigious golden ice axe has been awarded to the Japanese 'Mount Logan' expedition and also the Belgian/USA/UK 'Greenland Big Walls' expedition.
Yasushi Okada and Katsutaka Yokoyama (Japan) received their award for their 2500m route on the South East Face of Mount Logan (5959m), Canada, which entailed four bivouacs.
Sean Villanueva, Nicolas and Olivier Favressse (Belgium) and Ben Ditto (USA) captained by Briton Bob Shepton (75 yrs) sailed to Greenland and climbed nine new routes on the big walls on the West & South coasts of Greenland The most committing route - Devil's Brew, took 10 days. Most of the routes were started from their basecamp boat.
British mountaineering legend Doug Scott received the Lifetime Contribution Award.
Commenting to UKClimbing after the ceremony, Sean Villanueva summed up the spirit of the awards:
"Hopefully us receiving the piolet will send out a message that it is important to climb as cleanly as possible, to enjoy the climbing and that team spirit is important. It is not necessary to place bolts in these wild places, especially where other protection is possible. There are too many bolts showing up next to perfect cracks.
Also, hopefully this “Piolet d'Or” will boost our musical careers..."
- You can read more about Doug Scott and his award in this previous UKC News.
- You can read more about the Devil's Brew and other Greenland adventures in this UKC News
PHOTO GALLERY: Piolets d'Or 2011
Thanks go to Anna Piunova of Mountain.ru for some of the photographs that accompany this news report.
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