Piolets d'Or

International mountaineering award

The Piolets d'Or (pjɔ. lɛ dɔʁ, "Golden Ice Axe") is an annual mountaineering and alpine climbing award organized by the Groupe de haute montagne (GHM), and previously with co founder Montagnes Magazine, since its founding in 1992. Golden ice axes are presented to the annual winners at a weekend awards festival based on their achievements in the previous year. It is considered mountaineering's highest honor and is referred to as the "Oscars of mountaineering". The Piolets have progressed from being a competition like single award event (Le Piolet d'Or) into a broader celebration of mountaineering and alpinism, with several awards made (Les Piolets d'Or). After a crisis in 2008, the Charter for the awards was rewritten to focus on the style and innovation of the nominations, respect for the mountain, environment, and future climbing generations, and to increase the independence and transparency of the award process; the official name was also changed to the plural.

At the start of the 1990s, it was difficult to raise funds for major mountaineering expeditions in France. The French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing could no longer fund expeditions (as it had done since the French Annapurna expeditions). Alpinist Jean Claude Marmier, then president of the Groupe de haute montagne (or GHM), suggested an annual prize for "outstanding achievement in the world of alpinism" might increase the public profile (and thus sponsorship) of French mountaineering. He won the support of fr, then editor of the Grenoble based French monthly climbing and mountaineering magazine, Montagnes, and in 1992 GHM and Montagnes announced the first Piolet d'Or award for the best alpine ascent of 1991 at the Autrans Mountain Film Festival.

The Piolet d'Or is the highest honor in mountaineering and alpine climbing. In 2021, the New York Times described it as "Alpinism's biggest prize", and that even though it had some vocal critics, it had widespread support amongst the climbing community. They are often called the "Oscars of mountaineering".

The 2012 Piolet d'Or winners were announced in March 2012 by a 6 person technical jury consisting of Michael Kennedy, Valeri Babanov, Alberto Iñurrategi, Ines Papert, Liu Yong, and Alessandro Filippini (Italian journalist). The event was held in France and Italy and two Piolets were awarded from the short list of 6 ascents, as well as a "Special mention". fr won the 4th Lifetime Achievement Award. Doug Scott won the 3rd Lifetime Achievement Award. In a break with tradition, Christian Trommsdorff, chairman of Piolets d'Or organizer Groupe de Haute Montagne, said at the ceremony that the winners exemplified the new post 2008 Charter, while the other nominees did not make the cut. Jury President Doug Scott heralded the new post 2008 Charter, saying: "This edition signals the rebirth of the Piolets d'Or. For us there are no winners, no losers. The honored are the ambassadors of an art, a passion." The three co founders of the awards, the GHM, Montagnes and Guy Chaumereuil (the editor of Montagnes when the awards were founded), produced a new "Charter", and decided to hold the 2008 ceremony not exclusively in France, as in the past, but south of the border in the Val d'Aosta, in Italy. Concern still lingered over the need for stronger independent jury panels in deciding a winner, and whether there should be just a single winner. These issues could not be resolved easily, and in January 2008, it was announced that the 2008 Piolet d'Or would be canceled while these debates were still in process.