Piolets d’Or: the Winners

BRUCE NORMAND, KYLE DEMPSTER AND JED BROWN AWARDED (FIRST ASCENT OF THE WESTERN SUMMIT OF XUELIAN FENG) ALONG WITH DENIS URUBKO AND BORIS DEDESHKO (NEW ROUTE ON THE SOUTHEAST FACE OF CHO OYU)

Saturday, 10^th April 2010, 11 p.m. At the Majestic in Chamonix, the audience hangs on Andrej Štremfelj’s every word: the President of Jury of the 18^th Piolets d’Or edition is about to announce the winners’ names. Five enterprises have been nominated, all extraordinary. Though, who shall raise the “Golden Ice Axe” in the sky in a few minutes? Štremfelj pauses briefly, then prepares the audience: «Today we have decided to chose two climbs, that represents creativity and exploration». Silence. Another brief pause, then finally the announcement: «This year we have chosen to award the first ascent of the Western Summit of Xuelian Feng, carried out by Bruce Normand, Kyle Dempster and Jed Brown». A roar bursts in the room. We are barely a meter away from the nominees, so we try to take as many pictures as we can and immortalize all the joy on the faces of the three “champions”. Kyle jumps on his feet, he is euphoric, and Alexander Ruchkin spares no congratulations. The trio goes up on the stage and immediately receives the prize amid smiles and handshakes, while Denis Urubko goes wild with his camera. But it is not over yet. Štremfelj is about to make the second announcement and proclaim the other winners: «Then we award Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko for their climb of Cho Oyu’s southeast face». Here there is another roar. Denis definitely deserves this success, as he is at his third nomination after the ones for the new routes on Broad Peak and Manaslu.

The jury, after having examined the ascents in the lists, has chosen with no hesitations: Štremfelj, Jordi Corominas, Robert Schauer, Kei Taniguchi, Anna Piunova and Lindsay Griffin, regardless of any distinction and category, have awarded them absolutely equal. That is because the enterprise by the Kazakh mountaineers and the one by the Scottish-American trio represent two different ways to interpret exploration and adventure, but both at the highest standards, as Štremfelij explained. On the one hand, there is a well-known colossus easy to reach, on the other hand, an almost unknown and unexplored chain. So, Bruce, Kyle and Jed have made their moves towards the absolute discovery and have had an extraordinarily demanding climb. On the other hand, Denis and Boris have managed to find something new where particular skills are required to succeed, in all senses. In fact, they have located and traced an incredible route on a face that is objectively dangerous. The jury has remarked that the awarded ascents have something more than the other nominated ones – a difference that is worth to be pointed out –, even if all of them are exemplar: the one on Pobeda by Gleb Sokolov and Vitaly Gorelik, that on Peak 6134 by Alexander Ruchkin and Mikhail Mikhailov and the one on Chang Himal by Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman.

Having said that, we guarantee that next days we will provide with further contributes (texts and images) about the Piolets d’Or. Then, we would like to end remarking that the organizers – first of all, Christian Trommsdorff, impeccable orchestra director – really succeeded in hitting the nail on the head. The celebration at the feet of Mont Blanc, where you could breath everything but competitiveness, has been the fair of the world mountaineering, a great international party where different stories and experiences have wonderfully interwoven – from Europe to Japan, from America to Russia, between past and present, but with a regard to the future.

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Cover photo. Jordi Corominas, jury member, the nominees and the awardees on the stage of the Majestic in Chamonix at the end of the night. Standing, from the left: Jordi Corominas, Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman (Chang Himal), Vitaly Gorelik and Gleb Sokolov (Pobeda), Bruce Normand and Kyle Dempster (Xuelian Feng). Hunkering down, from the left: Alexander Ruchkin (Peak 6134), Boris Dedeshko and Denis Urubko (Cho Oyu), and Jed Brown (Xuelian Feng). Mikhail Mikhailov, Ruchkin’s fellow on Peak 6134, unfortunately has been unable to be present at the event. Photo by Carlo Caccia

Photo 1. Andrej Štremfelj, President of Jury, is about to announce the winners of the 18^th Piolets d’Or edition. Photo by Carlo Caccia

Photo 2. A second after the first announcement by Štremfelj: Dempster (smiling) and Brown (partially turned) while being celebrated by Ruchkin (standing on the left) and Gorelik (sitting down). Photo by Carlo Caccia

Photo 3. From the left: the Scottish mountaineer Bruce Normand, along with the American fellows Kyle Dempster and Jed Brown, with their Piolet d’Or. Photo by Carlo Caccia

Photo 4. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko with Anna Piunova, jury member and Editor-in-chief of the website www.mountain.ru, point of reference for information about mountaineering in Russia and all over the countries of the ex-Soviet Union. Photo by Carlo Caccia

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Italian version
www.iborderline.net/intotherocks/2010/04/piolets-dor-i-vincitori

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iBorderline.net // Traduzione di Anna Zuccaro

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