Paul Ramsden

He is anything but a self-promoter. Paul Ramsden does not belong to the group of extreme climbers who are out to market themselves and want to be constantly in the spotlight. Though he certainly deserves it – the list of his first ascents in the Himalayas is long. In fall 2016, for example, the British, together with his compatriot Nick Bullock, succeeded to climb for the first time through the extremely demanding North Face of the 7,046 meter high Nyainqentangla South in Tibet. For this performance, they were recently awarded the Piolet d’Or. It was already the fourth time that Ramsden received the “Oscar of the Climbers”. And this is despite the fact that the 48-year-old is not a professional climber. He earns his living as a self-employed occupational hygienist who advises companies and furnishes expert reports.

Paul, you are a non-professional climber, you have a job and family. What is your motivation to set off year by year to remote mountain areas in the Himalayas to tackle unclimbed mountains, walls or ridges?

I love the mountains, it’s as simple as that. But as I don’t live or work in the mountains this maintains my enthusiasm for when I do visit them. Strangely with family and work commitments I find it more difficult to go climbing for weekends throughout the year than I do to go on an expedition once a year.

Summit selfie of Paul (l.) with Nick Bullock (r.)

What does real adventure means in your view?

Real adventure is not knowing the outcome, if success is in doubt you are having an adventure. However, for me adventure is so tied up with climbing style that the questions are inseparable. The British climbing tradition has always been like this.

How important is it for you to climb in pure style?

Style is everything, without good style climbing becomes a meaningless physical activity. For me good style is climbing in a pure alpine style, small team, no bolts, no fixed ropes, no outside support.

How many risks are you willing to take?

I try really hard to reduce the risks to a minimum. I am very selective about my route choices, always considering objective hazards and the means of descent. The risk assessment in my head is a constant process and difficult to describe but I have turned back on many routes.

The route on Nyainqentangla South East

What is your secret of success?

I don’t know to be honest. I suppose it’s a combination of experience, judgement and climbing in a style that suits my abilities and temperament.

You have climbed for many years very successfully with Mick Fowler, now with Nick Bullock. Which criteria has a perfect team partner to meet?

The perfect climbing partner is safety conscious, has a good sense of humour (The British sense of humour helps a lot on the mountain) but is still prepared to commit to the max when the need arises.

Mick was diagnosed with cancer this year. What did you feel when you heard it?

This was a real blow and a total surprise as he appeared to be very healthy and has always seems indestructible to me. He has just finished his treatment and hopeful all will be well. It does make you think about the future though and consider all the things you haven’t done yet.

Piolet d’Or winners Ramsden (l.) and Mick Fowler

You were awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”, four times, you’re the record winner (along with Marko Prezelj). Does this mean anything to you?

While it’s very pleasant to be recognised by you peers it has virtually no impact on my life. As a non professional, part time climber, I don’t really need sponsorship or publicity. However I do support the Piolet D’Or as a tool for promoting good ethics and style in mountaineering.

Is there already a climbing goal that you have set for next year?

Yes, I am going on another expedition in 2018 with Nick Bullock. I like to keep objectives secret though!

Summit selfie of Ramsden (l.)  and Bullock (r.)

There will be a celebration tonight in Grenoble – with Golden Ice Axes.  In a special ceremony in the town in the French Alps, this year’s winners will receive the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of Mountaineers”. A high-grade jury, including German top climber Thomas Huber, selected two expedition teams for the prestigious award this spring. The two Britons Paul Ramsden and Nick Bullock are honored for their first ascent of the North Face of the 7,046-meter-high Nyainqentangla South East in Tibet. The wall “was almost impossible to describe without using superlatives,” Nick Bullock wrote on his website after the expedition in fall 2016. “It was a dream, it had runnels, ice, fields of snow, arêtes – the face twisted and turned in some warped massive monster Matterhorn way”. Nick called the face a “mouth-puckering 1600 m”. It took Ramsden and Bullock five days to climb the wall.

Ramsden now record winner along with Prezelj

The route of the two Britons

“I suppose its burying your head in the sand but I always think it’s best to think about such a big route just one pitch at a time,” Paul Ramsden later wrote in his expedition report. “Deal with what’s in front of you and worry about the rest later! If you think about the route as a whole it’s just too easy to get intimidated.”

The 48-year-old is awarded the Piolet d’Or for the fourth time, so he joins record winner Marko Prezelj from Slovenia. Paul had received the first three Golden Ice Axes together with Mick Fowler, each for spectacular first ascents on six-thousanders. Nyainqentangla South East was the first seven-thousander Ramsden scaled. For the 52-year-old Nick Bullock it is his first Piolet d’Or. Nick had been nominated for the 2010 award for his first ascent of the North Face of the six-thousander Chang Himal with Andy Houseman, but in the end they had left empty-handed.

Direttissima

Russian route on Thalay Sagar

The other Piolet d’Or 2017 goes to Russia. Dmitry Golovchenko, Dmitry Grigoriev and Sergey Nilov are awarded for their new route through the North Face of the 6,904-meter-high Thalay Sagar in the Indian Himalaya: a direttissima on the North Buttress to the summit. For Golovchenko and Nilov it is the second Golden Ice Axe after 2013, when they were honored for their first ascent of the Northeast Spur on the seven-thousander Muztagh Ata in western China.

Marko Prezelj

Actually, he finds it nonsense that mountaineers are awarded. “Basically it’s impossible to compare any climbs, because every climb has a different emotion,” Marko Prezelj told me a year ago during the  “Piolet d’Or” celebrations, the “Oscar of the climbers”. “It’s bizarre. It’s like you are making love and making an article out of it. If it’s poetry, maybe it’s okay. But it is a thin line between romantic poetry and pornography.” As in 2015, Marko was again awarded the Golden Ice Axe in 2016. Last weekend, the Slovene received the prize in La Grave in the French Alps, along with his compatriot Urban Novak, the American Hayden Kennedy and the Frenchman Manu Pellissier – for their first ascent of the South Face of the 6176-meter-high Cerro Kishtwar in the Indian Himalayas. Thus Marko is now holding a record that he actually doesn’t want to have.

Festival instead of competition

Successful team on Cerro Kishtwar: Hayden Kennedy, Marko Prezelj, Manu Pellissier, Urban Novak (from l. to r. – along with Wojciech Kurtyka 3. from l.)

For Prezelj, it was the fourth Piolet d’Or after 1992, 2007 and 2015. No climber was honored more frequently than he. Mountain adventures, says Marko, must have three fundamental elements: “unknown, uncertain, exposure”. This is leading him again and again to exceptional destinations – what has been impressing the different juries, already beginning with the first Piolet d’Or ceremony in 1992. “It’s like an old marriage,”, says Prezelj. “I was the first one and since then I keep a kind of certain distance. I lost a kind of desire to get it. This is the problem why I have a more critical prospective.” Marko’s last year’s message – “Don’t make a competition, make a festival!” – seems to have been heard. With almost the same words, the British jury member Victor Saunders announced this year’s event.

Third Piolet d’Or for Fowler and Ramsden

Mick Fowler (r.) and Paul Ramsden

The nine-member jury, that also included the top climbers Silvo Karo from Slovenia, Valeri Babanov from Russia and Raphael Slawinsky from Canada, chose three other exceptional projects: The British Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden won their third Piolet d’Or, for their first ascent of the 6571-meter- high Gave Ding, a remote mountain in northwestern Nepal. The two Ukrainians Mikhail Fomin and Nikita Balabanov were awarded for their new route via the Northwest Pillar of the 7348-meter-high Talung in Nepal. And finally the American Jerome Sullivan, the Argentinian Diego Simari, and Lise Billon and Antoine Moineville, both from France, received the Golden Ice Axe, for their first ascent of the Northeast Pillar of the 2550-meter-high Cerro Riso Patron in Patagonia.
The lifetime achievement award went to the great Polish climber Wojciech Kurtyka. The now 68-year-old had set climbing milestones, especially in the 1980s with numerous extremely difficult routes on the highest mountains on earth.

Mick Fowler (l.) and Paul Ramsden

Real adventurers should be young? Fiddlesticks! The Briton Mick Fowler and his long-time climbing partner and compatriot Paul Ramsden prove that you can do extremely ambitious climbs in the Himalayas even if you are older than 50. Mick is going to celebrate his 60^th (!) anniversary next year – unbelievable! Many young climbers would turn green with envy comparing their efforts with Mick’s and Paul’s achievements in recent years. Again and again they succeed in first climbing amazing routes on six-thousanders in Nepal, India, China or elsewhere. They were already awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar for climbers”, twice: in 2003, for their new route through the North Face of the 6250-meter-high Siguniang in western China and in 2013, for their first climb of the Northeast Ridge of the 6142-meter-high Shiva in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. And they have a good chance to win the Golden Ice Axe for the third time – for their latest expedition. This October, Mick and Paul completed the first ascent of Gave Ding, a six-thousander located in a very remote valley in far west Nepal.

Mick, year after year you and your climbing partner Paul Ramsden discover ambitious new mountains or routes, tackle them and succeed. What is your secret of success?

Lots of hard research, a good partnership and a shared approach of not retreating unless there is a very good reason to do so.

Mick’s and Paul’s route on Gave Ding

This fall, you first climbed the 6,571-meter-high Gave Ding in western Nepal via the steep North Face. How did you find this new goal?

We found it from distant shots of the west side taken by friends which gave us a gut feeling which was supported by setting the time of day on Google Earth and seeing that the North Face sported the longest shadow in the area.

How did you experience your climb on Gave Ding?

Experience was wonderful. Great climbing, great company, great valley not previously visited by westerners. No-one else around, unclimbed summit, different descent route, challenging good quality varied climbing. Everything we look for.

Extreme climbing

This mountain is located in a very remote region. Did you feel like explorers?

Yes in that we didn’t know what the face would be like until we actually saw it. It could have been rubbish!

Some time ago, I called people like you and Paul in one of my blog posts an “antidepressant” for all folks older than 50. What do you think, how long will you be able to do such amazing climbs?

As long as I enjoy it and my body can cope. No thoughts of giving up yet!