UKC

Piolets d'Or Winners Announced

© Piolets d'Or 2010
Bruce Normand from Scotland and Americans Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster  © Piolets d'Or 2010
Bruce Normand from Scotland and Americans Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster
© Piolets d'Or 2010
The Kazakh climbers Denis Urubko and  Boris Dedeshko  © Piolets d'Or 2010
The Kazakh climbers Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko
© Piolets d'Or 2010

Scottish climber amongst the five winners:

The 18th Piolets d'Or event was held in Chamonix and Courmayeur from the 7th to the 10th of April. The Piolets d'Or are a "celebration of ethical alpinism" in which a jury gives 'awards' to the top or most inspirational ascents of the year. There is also a career award to honour a climber who has had a major impact on world climbing through a successful climbing career.

Reinhold Messner, the famous Italian high altitude mountaineer, was the recipient of this year's Career Piolet d'Or award, recognising his huge influence in world mountaineering.

The two teams that took a Piolets d'Or for a major ascent in 2009 were:

Xuelian West (6422m), north face, China.

Bruce Normand from Scotland and Americans Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster are among the first climbers to explore the north side of this impressive massif. After climbing several virgin faces during acclimatisation, they completed the first ascent of the 2650-metre north wall of Xuelian West, with five days of difficult and insecure technical climbing.

Cho Oyu (8201m) southeast face, Nepal.

The Kazakh climbers Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko climbed a very difficult and direct new route on this 2600-meter wall, during a 10-day round trip from base camp in May. With this climb, they discovered a bold and difficult new way to the summit of a popular Himalayan summit. For Urubko, the climb was a stylish conclusion to his quest to climb all 14 of the world's 8000-metre peaks.


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14 Apr, 2010
Wow, great achievement. I remeber bumping into Bruce a few years ago in Joshua tree after having just met him at a Physics conference. He's a really nice guy, congratulations to him!
14 Apr, 2010
What do you mean? He was one f the main movers behind oxygenless ascents of 8000 meter peaks and has continually espoused alpine style ethic for ascents in the greater ranges. Why do you suggest he's not ethical?
14 Apr, 2010
Depends though... what if the rumours are true? He should surely have his piolet taken away. -BS
14 Apr, 2010
Ta. And well done to Bruce. Which is what this was all about in the first place! Love to see a nobody ( sorry at least for me - in the media thing ) get obviously a great route and also nice award. Good Stuff.
15 Apr, 2010
And the same ethics applied to him by his expedition partners, slating is name for the past few decades, those shouldn't be considered? I think there is a hell of a lot more than meets the eye here. At the end of the day Messner's career has amongst them some of the greatest ascents made by any man alive - things like the Messner route on the south face of the marmolada, completed onsight and solo, which is still a massive classic today. Yes these are technical ethics, but Messner has continually tried to protect the alps from bolts, and climbed in the best style possible. That he has a commecrialistic streak in him, is that so bad? It's made his career possible, and he has at times received alot of bad press, often through no fault of his own. I've not seen the latest film but I'm sure it's no worse than anything produced by his detractors...
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