Posted: Jan 03, 2006 01:10 pm EST
Barrabes has published the first tentative list of Piolet d'Or nominations: As the jury included Lafaille very late last year, this time there could be last minute changes as well.

The nominees are:

Americans Steve House and Vince Anderson, for the new route opened on Nanga’s Rupal Face, in alpine- style.

Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov for the new route on Broad Peak's SW face, in alpine style.

French P. Wagnon, Ch. Trommsdorf, and Y. Graziani for the first climb on Chomo Lonzo's Central summit (Makalu area).

Swiss Ueli Steck for The Khumbu Express combination of solo climbs on Cholatse's North face and Tawoche.

Swiss Robert Jasper and German Stefan Glowacz for a new route on Cerro Murallon, Patagonian Ice Cap.

Italians Ermanno Salvaterra, Alessandro Beltrami and Argentinean Rolando Garibotti for a new route on Cerro Torre in alpine style.

New president of the jury

More surprising are perhaps the new jury members. Last year's president, Krzysztof Wielicki (14, 8000m peaks climbed and premier authority on winter climbing) has been replaced by Briton Stephen Venables - an alpine-style purist.

Previous year's winners also earn the right to be on the jury. Last year, Jannu won - however, instead of the expedition leader (Alexander Odintsov) the members of the jury are Bolotov and Mikhailov.

As for this year's nominees, here goes a rerun:

Chomo-Lonzo: Central summit climbed

Christian Trommsdorff, Yannick Graziani, and Patrick Wagnon bagged the previously unclimbed Central Summit of Chomo-Lonzo, a satellite peak of Makalu, on May 21st at 6:15 PM, local time. The summit push took 13 hours. The climbers had to overcome several difficult rock outcrops before reaching the upper snow slopes. Night fell as the climbers were making their way back to their camp at 7400m. After negotiating exposed traverses and delicate rappels in the darkness, the climbers finally reached their tent around four in the morning, May 22nd.

Under the leadership of Christophe Moulin of the FFME, the expedition members were Patrick Wagnon, Christian Trommsdorff, Yannick Graziani, Christophe Moulin, Stephan Benoist, Patrice Glairon-Rappaz, Yann Bonneville and Aymeric Clouet. The expedition climbed both the Central and North summit.

Ueli Steck’s solo ride in the Khumbu-Express

In the world of exploration, a bland challenge, if attached to a famous name and/or a good story can be enough to attract headlines, overshadowing true accomplishment. This spring, only a few thousands of feet away from the spotlights of the big E, a solo climber quietly climbed two beautiful faces - similar in difficulty to Eiger's North Face, but without options for rescue. At one point, the pressure of the climb sent Ueli into a mental collapse.

His initial goal was the North Face of Cholatse, the East Face of Tawoche and the North East Face of Ama Dablam. He named his quest “Khumbu-Express.” The most spectacular of the three, was the first solo ascent of the North Face of Cholatse (6440 m) on April 14-15.

Jasper & Glowacz, El Murallón

After four days on the wall, Robert Jasper and Stefan Glowacz reached the summit of El Murallón. The pair had finally completed the route they started in 2004 on the North face. Robert and Stefan took advantage of the first break in the never changing stormy weather they'd had since their approach to BC, in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The new route is 27 pitches-long, and difficulty graduation has been set at 9+ A2. This was the guys' third trip to El Murallón. In 2003 they opened 'The Lost World', a new route via the North Pillar.

Cerro Torre North face: Salvaterra, Garibotti and Beltrami

Shortly after the news that Jasper & Glowacz summited El Murallón in Patagonia, ExWeb learned that Italians Ermanno Salvaterra and Alessandro Beltrami, and Argentinean (US resident) Rolo Garibotti summited Patagonian Cerro Torre at 11.30 pm on November 13 - funny enough - on the exact one year anniversary of Ales and Ermanno's reaching the same summit via a new route on the East face in 2004. After waiting in bad weather for weeks, Ermanno, Ales and Rolo grabbed the chance at first weather window. They left BC early morning November 12.

The trio had to endure two bivouacs on the wall: One on the way up and one right below the summit mushroom after reaching the top. Salvaterra reported the climb was done in alpine style, though a new route the team has called “El Arca de los Vientos" (The chest of winds).

At the upper sections of the wall, the climbers traversed from the North face in order to join the Ragni di Lecco route. The team had hoped to complete the first repetition of the controversial route opened by Cesare Maestri and Toni Egger in 1959. Retracing Maestri’s footsteps, the goal was not only to climb the route, but also check if there are pegs or other rests left by the ’59 climbers, to prove they actually climbed the wall. They found no traces and the riddle remains unsolved.

House & Anderson, Nanga Parbat Rupal Face

On September 6 2005, shortly after the smoke from Messner's burning had vanished into Nanga's thin air, House and Vince Anderson pioneered a new route on the Rupal face. Steve had attempted the same goal already in 2004, with Bruce Miller. After the failed attempt, Steve obtained a Mugs Stump grant for a new try with Slovenian Marko Prezejl for partner. The pair climbed a new route on Cayesh, Peruvian Andes in June together - but then Steve turned up on Nanga with Vince.

The American climb took six days up and two days to descend, in alpine style. The ascent was touted as the first alpine style ascent of the Rupal Face. Some readers pointed out to ExWeb that Oscar Cadiach (K2 Magic Line) and Jordi Mariñá climbed the face already back in the eighties. The Spaniards however went in alpine style only from Camp 1, making their climb "semi-alpine".

Vince and Steve went in one go, except for gear cached at the glacier 2 hours from BC. Extreme 'purists' have it that pure alpine style means a climb in one go on a route virgin to the climber. As Vince and Steve followed Steve's 2004 route up to 7500m, Steve told ExWeb in reply: "The route was the same for the first two days, but that does not make it non-alpine style. Alpine style does not mean 'on-sight' but rather no fixed ropes, fixed camps, high-altitude porters, no Oxygen, etc.”
The climb was hard and summit day lasted 24 hours. The men set off at 3:30 am with one light pack between the two of them, on 100 m of deep, steep, unconsolidated, facetted snow followed until the snow surface had strengthened enough to allow travel on top. The weather was superb, it was even slightly hot, they reported. The climbers arrived at the summit 5:45 pm. The descent took two days, lit by bonfires from below and sounds of the local villagers drumming in celebration.

In 2003, Steve House criticized the Piolet d’Or Jury for rewarding too many ‘heavy expeditions’ instead of ‘pure alpine’ climbs, referring to the 2003 winners, Yuri Koshelenko and Valeri Babanov's climb of Nuptse East.

Last year, Steve was nominated for the Piolet d’Or for his speed solo climb on K7, in super-light style (his backpack weighed just 4 kg). Steve was awarded by the public attending the ceremony, but the award finally went to the Russian Jannu North Face team.

Urubko and Samoilov: Broad Peak SW face

Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov arrived at Broad Peak, after one year of preparations, intending to climb the SW face in expedition style with a larger team of Italians. When their mates backed out on the challenge, the two men found themselves with a choice: Go the normal route, go home - or go it alone.

There had been many attempts to climb BP’s Southwest face, including big names such as Kukuczka but until last year, the face had remained unclimbed. In addition, 2005 proved an uncommonly bad year to climb the peak. Deep snow turned back all mountaineers on the normal route. July 18, the Kazakhs started their push from 4800m on the SW face. The pair set six bivouacs during the ascent, but only found space enough to lie down on two occasions. The other 4 nights, Denis and Serguey would just sit and wait for the morning light.

The Kazakhs route went up 2,300 vertical-meters of face, starting on glacier terrain; and then, a sheer rock and ice face from 5500m to 7,800. Denis and Serguey climbed on sight, in Alpine style.

Summit day, the climbers reported strong wind, no visibility and extremely deep snow with avalanches and dangerous rock. They spent a sleepless, very cold night at 7800m, sharing one sleeping bag, one down jacket, one Gore-Tex, and one polar fleece between the two of them and suffered from thirst - out of gas and food since three days.

At 7950 meters, on the South-East ridge, the wind turned into hurricane. Climbers at the normal route were forced back below the true summit. Denis and Serguey pushed on, up the summit ridge to the main summit of Broad Peak, at 8,051m. "I led as if we were at war," said Denis. They reached the top at 11:30 am on 25 July 2005.

The only summiteers of Broad peak in 2005, Serguey and Denis had climbed the 8000+ giant through a new route, on an unclimbed face, in alpine style, on sight and in severe conditions. The climb was awarded one of the best expeditions in 2005 by ExplorersWeb.

The Piolet d'Or

The Golden Axe criteria sticks to “alpine” parameters and technical details: The candidates are most often small teams opening new routes on isolated peaks. Alpine style, new lines and solo climbs score high.

Awarded by French Montagnes Magazine according to the decision of an international jury, its importance makes the Piolet d’Or (The Golden Ice Axe) something like the Oscars of Alpinism.

2006 Piolet d'Or jury:

1. Stephen Venables
2. Jannu: Bolotov and Mikhailov
3. Guy Chaumereuil (France), founder of the prize
4. Mike “Twid” Turner (UK)
5. Pierre Hofmann (Swizerland) GHM
6. Sylvo Karo (Slovenia), Mountain Wilderness International
7. François Marsigny (France)
8. Im Duc Young (Korea)
“Montagnes magazine” staff.

2005 jury was Krzysztof Wielicki 14, 8000m peaks climbed and premier authority on Winter climbing; Leslie Fucsko president GHM; Guy Chaumereuil, founder of the Piolet d’or Award; Valeri Babanov and Yuri Koshelenko, winners of the Piolet d’or 2003; Stéphane Benoist, nominated for the Piolet d’or in 2003 and a member of GHM; Yvette Vaucher, member of the GHM; and Montagnes Magazine’s editors.

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