Team Geared Up

DUBLIN (Geared Up Blog) - Marko Prezelj and Boris Lorencic have won the Piolet d’Or this year for the first ascent of the Northwest Pillar of Chomo Lhari (c. 7,314m) in the Himalayas, Tibet. Read a full report of the climb here. Marko Prezelj is the only man to have won the award twice, as he picked up the ‘Golden Axe’ back in 1991 which was the inaugral year of the award. He won it back then for a 3000m ascent of the South Pillar of Kanchenjunga south summit, 8476m (Himalaya) with Andrej Stremfelj.

The Piolet d’Or award is an annual mountaineering award which has been given by the French magazine Montagnes and The Groupe de Haute Montagne since 1991.

The criteria for this award includes alpine climbs that involve high technical difficulty and commitment, originality in the choice of the objective, pure lightweight style and respect for the mountains. The award is chosen by a jury consisting of the editors of Montagnes magazine and officials of the The Groupe de Haute Montagne and included the recipients of last years award Americans Vince Anderson and Steve House (Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat).

Slovenian Pavle Kozjek’s solo of the Southeast Face of Cho Oyu won the “People’s Choice” award.

The 2007 Piolet d’Or was awarded on January 26, 2007 in Grenoble, France. The nominees were:

-Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Sergey Samoilov, for a new route opened in alpine style on Manaslu’s Northeast face
-Slovenian Pavle Kozjek’s solo of the Southeast Face of Cho Oyu
-Slovenians Marko Prezelj and Boris Lorencic, for the first ascent on Chomo Lhari’s Northwest pillar
-Ukrainians Igor Chaplinsky, Andrey Rodiontsev and Orest Verbitsky for a first ascent on the North ridge of Shingu Charpa
-Brits Ian Parnell and Tim Emmett for climbing the Southeast Pillar of Kedarnath Dome