Ascent (red) and descent route (green)

Who says that there are no playgrounds for top climbers in the Himalayas anymore? Yury Koshelenko and Aleksei Lonchinskii have erased a blank spot on the map of the six-thousanders. 0n 28 October the two Russians succeeded the first ascent of the 6,538-meter-high Phungi, located west of the eight-thousander Manaslu in Nepal. The 54-year-old Koshelenko and  Lonchinskii, aged 35, climbed on a rather direct route through the about  1,500-meter-high Southeast Face of the mountain. It took them three days for the ascent in Alpine style and two more days for the descent on a different route.

Sharp ridge

At the summit ridge

According to Yury, they entered the wall with ice passages of 60 to 80 degrees in good weather on 26 October. After the second bivouac, five pitches below the summit ridge, the weather deteriorated rapidly. It became very cold and windy, Koshelenko reports. Over the sharp, corniced firn ridge the duo worked their way to the summit, which they reached on 28 October at 4:30 pm. The descent through an icefall in bad weather was sometimes tricky, reports Yury.

Piolet d’Or winner

Yuri Koshelenko (r.) and Aleksei Lonchinskii

Koshelenko and Lonchinskii belong to the elite of Russian climbers. Both were already awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”: Koshelenko in 2003 for his first ascent of 7,804-meter-high Nuptse East via the Southeast Pillar (with Valerij Babanov), Lonchinskii for the first ascent of the Southwest Face of the 6,623-meter-high Thamserku (with Alexander Gukov).

Alex Honnold

At the latest since today, Alex Honnold knows what is the opposite of free solo: The “Press Walk” of the International Mountain Summit. The 32-year-old can neither move freely nor is he alone. On the Plose, the home mountain of Bressanone in South Tyrol, about sixty reporters, camera men and photographers are bustling around the American top climber. “Crazy,” says the 32-year-old with a smile in his face. Since 3 June, his name resounds not only throughout insiders of the climbing scene but worldwide. On that day he pushed into a new dimension. Alex succeeded the first free solo – means climbing alone and without any rope – through the legendary 900-meter-high granite wall of El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley. He climbed via the route “Freerider”, which had been opened by Alexander Huber in 1995 and had been free climbed for the first time by Alexander and his brother Thomas in 1998. For comparison, the ascent with ropes for belaying had taken the Huber brothers more than 15 hours.

Modern nomad

Up for every fun

Alex Honnold does not correspond to the stereotype of an extreme climber. He wears his hair short, does not drink alcohol, does not smoke and is a vegetarian. For many years he has been living as a modern nomad, quite modest in a mobile home which he uses to drive from rock wall to rock wall. For five years, he has been supporting with his foundation environmental projects around the world. Despite his coup on the El Capitan, he does not show any airs and graces.

Already during the ascent to the mountain restaurant Rossalm, where the organizers of the IMS have scheduled a press conference with Honnold, I manage to ask Alex some questions – according to the motto “walk and talk”.

Alexander and Thomas Huber as well as Tommy Caldwell compared your free solo on El Capitan with the first moon landing. How did you personally feel after having completed your project?

I found it similar. As a younger person I dreamt that would be the craziest thing I’ve ever done. But then, as I actually did it, I felt relatively normal because I spent so much time preparing that it felt like reasonable. I mean it was really special to me, but did feel like relatively normal. Anyway it’s complicated. I wouldn’t have been able to do something like that if I didn’t make it feel normal. But at the same time climbing El Cap without rope feels pretty crazy.

Alex Honnold: Pretty crazy

Was there any moment of doubt during your climb?

No, I was just 100 percent climbing. I wouldn’t have started without being totally committed. I spent a lot of time working on it. I spent nine years actually dreaming about it.

Many people wonder whether free solo climbs are responsible, especially this one in a 900-meter-high, extremely steep wall. What do yo answer them?

I thought it was responsible. I was going to make good decisions, doing my best. I think I’m pretty intentional about the risks that I’m going to take.

Alex Honnold: Intentional about the risks

Was it for you a kind of life project?

For me, it was very much like a life dream, definitely the biggest inspiration in my whole life.

Climbers on El Capitan

After having fulfilled this long dream, did you have to go through a mental valley?

I don’t know. If so, I am in the valley right now, because it was only a couple of months ago and I am still a sort of processing and looking for my next inspiration, what my next project is. There is a film about it coming next year. I am still talking about El Cap all the time. It doesn’t feel like the past.

You did a lot of amazing climbs before this free solo, for example the Fitz Traverse along with Tommy Caldwell. For this climb in Patagonia in February 2014, you were later awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the climbers”. How do you value the free solo on El Capitan if you compare it with the Fitz Traverse.

I mean, the Fitz Traverse was an amazing climbing experience, because it was with Tommy. He is a great friend, a great partner. The Fitz Traverse has never been like my big lifetime dream whereas freerider was something I was thinking about for years and years. Freerider was my personal private dream, the Fitz Traverse was more Tommy’s idea, because I had never been in Patagonia so I didn’t have any special agenda. Tommy said, we should do this. Then we did and it was an amazing experience, but I hadn’t built it up ahead that time.

What exactly did you to prepare for your free solo on El Capitan?

For many years beforehand it was more the mental, the imagining, the dreaming, the thinking about whether it was possible. And the last year beforehand, it was more the physical preparation, memorizing the moves, the rehearsal, and the actual training to get fit.

So you had every step of this climb in your mind before you started into the wall?

I had definitely every step that matters. Not the easy stuff, but the hard stuff I had fully memorized.

What was mentally the most difficult part of the climb?

Probably the biggest step was just believing that it’s possible. Because for years I thought how amazing it would be to do it but never really thought that I could. So I think the biggest mental step was like believing that I actually could and then starting the actual work.

Alex Honnold: The biggest step

And when you set off into the wall, you left everything behind?

I wouldn’t have started unless I was ready. By the time I got into the wall everything was in order.

“Compared with El Cap, the Dolomites look like pieces of garbage”, says Alex

Why did you choose “Freerider” and not another route?

It’s the easiest route on El Cap. (laughs) It’s not that easy but the other ones would have been harder.

Thomas Huber told me, he hoped that you would now stop free soloing because you probably die if you continue to push your limits.

I agree, if you constantly push, it gets more and more dangerous. But Alex (Huber), for example, was constantly pushing himself in different ways but staying safe. I think it’s possible to continue the challenge yourself without going to far.

Alex Honnold: Not going too far

So it was not your last free solo?

No, I did some in the Dolomites a couple of days ago, (laughs) but very easy ones. I think in my mind the free solo on El Cap was the hardest thing ever, because I can’t really think about anything more inspiring. But in the past, like in the last ten years, when I thought of things that were hard and I was proud of, I always had six months or a year between things that I was excited on. So we’ll see.

Hayden Kennedy (1990-2017)

What a tragic end of one of the best climbers in the world. The American Hayden Kennedy took his own life at the age of 27 years.  On Saturday, Hayden and his partner in life Inge Perkins, like Kennedy an experienced climber and skier, had been on a ski tour on Imp Peak in the US state of Montana. They were caught by an avalanche. Perkins was fully buried by the snow masses, rescuers recovered the 23-year-old dead. Kennedy, who was partially buried, survived. On Sunday he committed suicide.

“Unbearable loss”

Hayden survived the avalanche but not the unbearable loss of his partner in life”, wrote his father Michael Kennedy,  editor of the magazine “Climbing” for several decades, on Facebook. “He chose to end his life. Myself and his mother Julie sorrowfully respect his decision.”

Two times Piolet d’Or winner

In January 2012, Hayden Kennedy had made world-wide headlines when he and his compatriot Jason Kruk had repeated the “Compressor Route” of the Italian Cesare Maestri on Cerro Torre in Patagonia and  then removed the most bolts set by Maestri in 1970. In the same year, Kennedy – along with Kyle Dempster and Josh Wharton – opened a new route throught the South Face of the 7,285-meter-high Ogre in the Karakoram in Pakistan. He and Dempster reached the summit, it was only the third ascent of the mountain. For their first ascent of the route, the US trio was awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the Climbers”. In 2016 he got the renowned award for the second time, for the first ascent of the South Face of the 6176-meter-high Cerro Kishtwar in the Indian Himalayas, along with the Slowenians Marko Prezejl and Urban Novak and the Frenchman Manu Pellissier.

Kazuya Hiraide (l.) and Kenro Nakajima

Put the eight-thousander glasses aside! At an insignificantly lower mountain in the west of the Karakoram in Pakistan, two Japanese climbers succeeded an extraordinary ascent on 22 August. According to the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima climbed for the first time via the Northeast Face of the 7611-meter-high Shispare. In four days, the two Japanese climbed in Alpine style through the 2700-meter-high wall to the summit and descended via the Northeast Ridge, it said.

Dramatic rescue operation

New Japanese route on Shispare

Especially Hiraide is a well-known figure in the scene. For their first ascent of the Southeast Face of the 7756-meter-high Kamet in India in 2008, he and his compatriot Kei Taniguchi were awarded the Piolet d’Or. Taniguchi was the first woman to receive the “Oscar of the climbers”. Aged 43, she fell to death on a Japanese mountain at the end of 2015.

With regard to Hiraide, some will also recall a dramatic rescue operation in fall 2010 on the 6812-meter-high Ama Dablam in the Khumbu area: After having opened a new route through the North Face, the Japanese and the German climber David Göttler had gotten into trouble on the North Ridge and had asked for a helicopter rescue. After Göttler had been safely brought into the valley, the helicopter took off again to take Hiraide on board. It touched the ridge and crashed, the two pilots died. The Japanese was saved a day later by another helicopter crew.

Four times on the top of Everest

On 25 May 2017, exactly on his 38th birthday, Hiraide reached  as a cameraman of a Japanese expedition the summit of Mount Everest. It was for the fourth time in his career.  He had tackled the Northeast Face of Shispare for the first time in 2007, In 2012 and 2013, Hiraide had tried to climb via the Southwest Face of the mountain. Now he was rewarded for his tenacity.

Death after first ascent

Shispare (rear)

The shapely Shispare is located in the Hunza Valley and is a real eye-catcher. The mountain was first climbed on 21 July 1974 by a Polish-German expedition via the Northeast Ridge. Among the seven successful climbers was Leszek Cichy, who – in 1980 – succeeded the first winter ascent of Everest along with Krzysztof Wielicki, and the two Germans Hubert Bleicher and Herbert Oberhofer. The two last mentioned climbers made two years later also the first ascent of the nearby 7795-meter-high Batura Sar. The success on Shispare in 1974 was overshadowed by a death: During the summit attempt of a second group, the German climber Heinz Borchers was caught by an avalanche and buried in a crevasse. He remained missing.

Luka Lindic

“That was far below my limit”, says the Slovenian Luka Lindic when I ask him about the first climbing of the North Face of the 6515-meter-high Hagshu in the Indian Himalayas. After all, Luka and his two Slovenian friends Marko Prezelj and Ales Cesen have been awarded for this climb with this year’s Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar for climbers”. “Sometimes you find such a logical line. It’s normal to follow it. We didn’t find any extreme difficult terrain”, Luka remembers. Looking for his personal limits, the 27-year-old climber will travel to the North of Pakistan this summer. In early July, Luka will set off to the Karakoram, together with his compatriots Luka Krajnc, Martin Zumer and Janez Svoljsak. “We will stay on Choktoi glacier for a month. And if the conditions will allow it and if we feel good, we would like to try Latok I.”

North Ridge? North Face?

Latok group and Ogre (r.)

Lindic does not reveal what exactly his young Slovenian team is planning. There are still some challenges on the 7145-meter-high granite mountain Latok I , that top climbers from all over the world have often tried but failed till now – e.g. the extremely steep North Ridge. Since the legendary first attempt in 1978 by the Americans Jeff and George Henry Lowe, Michael Kennedy and Jim Donini, who were forced back by a storm about 150 meters below the summit, more than 20 attempts to master the route failed. The US climbers Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson announced another try this summer. The North Face of Latok I is still unclimbed too. Actually, the Huber brothers Alexander and Thomas had planned to try the wall in summer 2014, but had cancelled the project due to the uncertain situation in Pakistan.

8000ers in mind

Luka climbing the Hagshu North Face (© Marko Prezelj)

Luka Lindic is considered one of the most talented and versatile climbers in Slovenia. But the mountaineer who is studying logistics in Styria (Stajerska) does not regard himself as being an upcoming star. “I just want to make good progress all the time, that’s important for me”, Luka says. In March 2014, he and Luka Krajnc first succeeded in free climbing the difficult route “Rolling Stone” through the 1000- meter-high Grandes Jorasses North Face above Chamonix in France. In fall 2014, the award-winning coup on Hagshu followed. “8000-meter-peaks are also in my mind”, says Lindic. “I believe, there is still a lot to do, especially in Alpine style.” I am sure we will hear a lot from Luka. Perhaps as early as this summer.

Tommy Caldwell in Chamonix

Tommy Caldwell is on a roll. The 36-year-old American and his compatriot Alex Honnold won this year’s Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar for climbers”, for their success in completing the so called “Fitz Traverse” in Patagonia, a more than five kilometers long climbing route over seven summits and some razor sharp ridges. And Tommy is a prime candidate for next year’s award too. Last January he and Kevin Jorgeson free-climbed for the first time the extremely difficult about 900-meter-high route Dawn Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite – a real milestone in big wall climbing. I talked to Tommy about both climbs.

Tommy, you and Alex Honnold were awarded the Piolet d’Or for succeeding the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia. How did you experience this outstanding climb?

It was definitely a hard climb for me. It was so outside of everyday life. So if you look back at it, it doesn’t seem real. It wasn’t something I had planned. We went to Patagonia not knowing what we were going to climb. That was one idea, but I thought it was too big, I never thought we could do it. But then there was a big weather window and we decided to just go big.

For Alex, it was the first time that he was on expedition in Patagonia. What was it like for you to climb with him the Fitz Traverse?

It was amazing. He is the ultimate climbing partner. I knew that his skills would transfer from Yosemite to Patagonia really well. He doesn’t like being cold, I was a little worried about that. But since the experience was so intense and amazing, he was okay dealing with the cold a few days.  Sometimes we were going a mile and not even seeing each other because we were on opposite sides of the rope. Our systems are so dialed that we don’t have to say a word to each other.

Tommy and Alex on the Fitz Traverse

Is it possible to compare the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia and the Dawn Wall in Yosemite that you free-climbed in team with Kevin Jorgeson at the turn of the year?

They are so different in style. I trained very hard for the Dawn Wall. For seven years it was on the top of my mind the whole time. That training prepared me for Patagonia well, but the style of climbing was so different. The Fitz Traverse just happened, it wasn’t really a plan. The Dawn Wall was very planned, I focused all my energy into that. There we had people bringing us food and tons of gear when we were up there for all this time. The Fitz Traverse was completely the opposite. We had one 25 liter and one 335 liter backpack, just barely enough food, only one sleeping bag.

Caldwell: So different in style

What does it mean to you to have succeeded free-climbing the Dawn Wall?

It means that this relationship that I have had for seven years is ending. It’s hard actually. A lot of people would think that the end of this goal is a great moment. For me it was good because I reached my goal, but this life driving force that I had for so long is no longer there.

So, are you now going through a valley?

(He laughs) Yeah, probably. I’m working on writing a book now. So I have something to focus my energy into. That’s how I am, I always find a goal and I very intensely pursue that. So right now I have to write a book, but I’m expecting at some point to go through a bit of a valley. I’m sure.

Tommy Caldwell (l.) in the Dawn Wall

You were 19 days in the wall. What was the hardest during this climb?

The hardest part of the Dawn Wall for me was actually the preparation before the climb: trying to figure out ways to better climbing, sometimes feeling like it wasn’t working. Once we got on the wall for that 19-day-push, things went really well for me. My partner on the other hand struggled; he wasn’t nearly as prepared as I was. He struggled pretty hard, so I waited around. I had to become very good support for him, which was fun for me too. I wouldn’t say it was a hard experience, but there were moments where we worried about whether we were going to make it together.

Caldwell: The hardest part was the preparation

When Kevin had problems, did you think for a moment that you would have to do it alone?

Luckily I never had to come to that. I didn’t want to top out without Kevin. I don’t know honestly whether I would have done it if he had given up completely. He might have told me that I have to continue.

If two climbers have done such an amazing thing together, does it change the attitude between them? Are you now another kind of friends?

Every climbing relationship is different. Alex Honnold is the kind of person I would call if I was having a hard time in life. He is like a really close friend. Kevin is also a close friend but in a very different way. We pretty much only talk when we are climbing together. But when we are climbing together, it works so well and it’s so amazing.  I admire Kevin so much, but it’s almost more like a business relationship whereas most of my other climbing partners, it’s like deep friendship, almost like family.

Caldwell about climbing relationships

There was a little bit of criticism about the great media coverage of your climb. Cameramen were hanging in the wall. There was a video live stream during the last days. What would you answer to these critics?

I would say that this media coverage was not something that we sought out at all, it just happened. We were open to it, we allowed it to happen, but it was not by design at all. It was purely because so many people were interested. There was a point when they said: There are going to be a lot of reporters on top when you get up there. And I said: I don’t really want that. But you can’t control it. Yosemite is a public place. People can come if they want.

They did it: Caldwell (l.) and Jorgeson

What do you answer people who say: This man is crazy doing such things?

Nobody says that. (He laughs) The whole process of climbing the Dawn Wall was such a life driving force for me that I think, if you were in my head the whole time you would totally understand it. But most people won’t, so I don’t expect them to understand it.

Did you close the chapter Yosemite after having finished your Dawn Wall project?

Yosemite always has been and will be part of my life. I don’t know if I pursue giant projects like the Dawn Wall anymore, but I am going to continue to go to Yosemite. I live in Colorado physically, but my heart is in Yosemite.

You lost one finger in an accident with a table saw in 2001. How is it possible to do such extreme climbs with only nine fingers?

When I chopped off my finger, I was already a quite serious climber. I didn’t want to lose professionally climbing as my way to live, and so I became very focused and dedicated at a kind of overcoming that injury. It made me mentally stronger. The biggest growth in my climbing I think was right after chopping off my finger. I was a sport climber and a boulderer before and I started to gravitate more towards big wall and mountains, because I knew that I could never be the best competition climber with nine fingers. Big wall climbing is a bit less finger strength intense.

You have also been on expedition to high mountains. In 2000, in Kirghizstan you were kidnapped. Was this an experience that made you avoid expeditions to high mountains?

No. What happened in Kirghizstan had nothing to do with the fact that we were even in the mountains. We got into the middle of a political struggle.

Tommy with his wife Rebecca and son Fitz

But it was very narrow for you.

Yes, but I am still going to save high mountains in the world. I think I don’t go to very high mountains because of avalanche danger. I have 25 friends in my life that have died in high mountains. I am a dad. I want to live a long time. So I pick climbs that I feel that the danger is more controllable.

So, no 8000 meter peaks?

I don’t have it in my plans. But if I find a beautiful route on a 8000 meter peak that I felt like was not in danger of rock fall, big avalanches, big crevasse danger, I would climb it.

You are a husband and father. Has this made you more cautious?

I think I view my life through a lens of having people who rely on me. I feel a lot of responsibility to be there for them. So, as I said, I pick climbs where I feel like the objective hazards are manageable. I don’t want to die in the mountains.

Caldwell:I don’t want to die in the mountains

P.S. I made this interview with Tommy already in April, at the Piolet d’Or celebrations in Chamonix. But when I actually wanted to publish it, the strong earthquake hit Nepal and I had to cover this tragedy…

Sir Chris Bonington

No doubt, he fully deserves this honour. When the most remarkable ascents in 2014 will be awarded with the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar” for mountaineers, in Chamonix and Courmayeur from 9 to 12 April, Sir Chris Bonington will be hounoured with the “Prix Walter Bonatti” for his really outstanding mountaineering career. The prize is awared for the seventh time. The previous prizewinners from 2009 onwards were Walter Bonatti, Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott, Robert Paragot, Kurt Diemberger and John Roskelley. “Chris Boningtons achievements have been significant in both the Alps and Himalaya”, the organizers of Piolet d’Or said. “An outstanding and passionate climber.”

Historic climbs

Last year Bonington celebrated his 80^th birthday by repeating one of his own famous climbs, the Old Man of Hoy, a spectacular sea stack in the Orkney islands, which he had first climbed in 1966. Later he did a great number of historic climbs like the first ascents of Annapurna II in 1960, of the Central Pillar of Freney on the south side of Mont Blanc in 1961 and of the 7285-meter-high Ogre in the Karakoram together with Doug Scott in 1977 (the second ascent followed only in 2001). Bonington also proved to be a great expedition leader. In 1970 he led the successful expedition to the South Face of Annapurna, in 1975 the expedition to Mount Everest, during which Doug Scott and Dougal Haston climbed the Southwest Face first. Bonington himself reached the summit of Everest in 1985 as a member of a Norwegian expedition. He was knighted by the Queen in 1996 for his services to the sport. A living legend!

“Everest no longer a place for pionieers”

Kongur Thak

Most recently I met Chris Bonington in 2013, at the diamond jubilee celebration of the first ascent of Mount Everest in the Royal Geographical Society in London and asked him – of course – about his thoughts on Everest. “It’s not a give-away, it’s still a tough game for those individuals, 2000 people at basecamp, 200 people going up the Lhotse face, 100 people going to the summit in a day aligned on a fix rope put up by the Sherpas. That’s something that happens”, Sir Chris answered. “Everest, if you like, is no longer a place for the pioneers. The pioneers have gone elsewhere.”

Sir Chris Bonington about commercial climbing on Everest

When we made the first ascent of the 7129-meter-high Kokodak Dome in the Kongur Range in western China half a year ago, I thought of Bonington. In 1981, he and the famous British climbers Al Rouse, Peter Boardman und Joe Tasker had scaled the 7719-meter-high Kongur Tagh for the first time. It is the highest mountain in the range, much more difficult than “our” Kokadak Dome.

Steck, Welsted, Slawinski (f.l.t.r)

This year’s jury of the Piolet’s d’Or has given the “Oscar of mountaineering” to two teams. The jury lead by the former US top climber George Lowe awarded “two very different ascents to represent the spirit of modern mountaineering”, as the members said. The Golden Ice Axes go to the Canadians Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted for their first ascent of the 7040-meter-high K 6 West in Karakoram on a new route via the Northwest Face and to the Swiss climber Ueli Steck for his solo ascent via the South Face of the eight-thousander Annapurna in Nepal. The awards were given to the climbers during a gala in Courmayeur in Italy at the foot of Mont Blanc on Saturday evening.

Do not paint with the same brush!

K 6 West

“Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted were confronted with difficult technical climbing including an overhanging ice crux”, the jury said. “On the fourth day they realized they couldn’t continue on the ridge as it turned out to be a knife edge of smooth granite. After careful consideration they found another possibility, rappelling to a glacial bench on the south side and climbing back up the ridge above the unclimbable section to continue to the summit.” Moreover the jury described the Canadian expedition as being “a wonderful example of consideration of the welfare of the local people”, because the two climbers had continued their project in Pakistan despite the murder attack on Nanga Parbat. “Ian and Raphael want to encourage other mountaineers not to paint all Pakistanis with the same brush.”

Accepted great risk

Ueli on Annapurna

The other winner of the Piolet d’Or 2014 was the outstanding favorite. Ueli Steck was awarded for his marvellous solo climb via the South Face of Annapurna. The Swiss  completed the difficult route which Pierre Béghin and Jean-Christophe Lafaille had opened up to 7300 meters in 1992. Bad weather had forced the French to return. During the descent Béghin had fallen to death. Ueli Steck climbed through the night and needed only 28 hours for his ascent and descent. “In soloing the south face of Annapurna Ueli Steck accepted great risk”, tells the jury. “For 28 hours he maintained absolute concentration, knowing that one false step would cause his demise. Ueli described himself as climbing very close to his limit.”

State of the art

John Roskelley

Both projects were “representative examples of the state of the art of mountaineering today”, the Piolet d’Or jury summarized and in addition gave a “special mention” to the French climbers Stephane Benoist and Yannick Graziani. They had repeated Uelis Route via the Annapurna South Face only two weeks later, but under more difficult conditions. The jury also praised the three other nominated expeditions: the Czech climbers Zdenek Hrudy and Marek Holecek who climbed firstly via the North Face of Talung (7439 m) in India (Hrudy later died on Gasherbrum I), the Austrian brothers Hansjoerg and Matthias Auer und the Swiss Simon Anthamatten, who summited Kungyang Chhish East (7400m) in Pakistan for the first time and – last but not least – the US climber Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman from New Zealand who climbed firstly via the North Face and the North Ridge of Mount Laurens (3052 m) in Alaska. “All the nominations should be celebrated as representing the highest ethical ideals of mountaineering”, said the jury. This also applies for the former US top climber John Roskelley who was awarded with a lifetime Piolet d’Or.

The jury itself is also worthy of applause, because the members did their job. Last year’s jury had awarded all six nominated expeditions. That really should remain the exception.

Update 31.3.: Hansjoerg Auer has complained bitterly about the jury. “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”, wrote Hansjoerg on Facebook. “This is only one sign of how superficially they were dealing with our adventure on Piolet d’Or.” Only George Lowe and Catherine Destivelle had  understood the challenge of climbing Kunyang Chhish East, meant the Austrian: “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.”