The ceremony of the 16th Piolet d'or will take place on January 26th in Grenoble, in the Alpes-Congrиs Hall, at 8 pm, and will celebrate five great mountaineering achievements which took place in 2006. True to the spirit of the great expeditions of the history of mountaineering, all were carried out in pure alpine style, on unexplored itineraries of major Himalayan mountains.

Pavle Kozjek (Slovenia), is nominated for his solo opening of a new itinerary up the south-western face of the Cho Oyu (8210 m, Nepal), in less than fifteen hours.

Ian Parnell and Tim Emmett (United Kingdom), for opening a new itinerary up the south-eastern pillar of the Kedarnath Dome (6 830m, India).

Marko Prezelj and Boris Lorencic (Slovenia), for the first ascent of the north-western pillar of the Chomo Lhari (7 326 m, Tibet).

Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov (Kazakhstan), for opening the north-eastern face of the Manaslu (8 163m, Nepal).

Igor Chaplinsky, Andrey Rodiontsev and Orest Verbitsky (Ukraine), for the first ascent of the northern ridge of the Shingu Charpa (5600m Pakistan).

Invited in Grenoble by the French monthly Montagnes Magazine, the five teams will present their respective achievements to the public before the jury awards the Piolet d'or to the team whose expedition best embodies the values of modern mountaineering: calculated risk taking, high technical performance, economy of means, respect of the human and natural environment.

Presided by the Russian Yuri Koshelenko (Piolet d'or 2003), this year's international jury will be composed of the Swiss mountaineer Michel Piola, of the Americans Steve House and Vince Anderson (Piolet d'Or 2005), of Christian Trommsdorff (France), and of the journalists Im Duck Yong (Korea), founder of the Asian Piolet d'or, Vinicio Stefanello (Italy) and the editorial staff of Montagnes Magazine (France).

This year, the Piolet d'or further broadens its audience, with a televised retransmission. This great moment of the mountaineering calendar will celebrate, once again, the spirit of companionship and solidarity, and the beauty of an exceptional mountaineering achievement, in front of a community of climbers from all nations, free from political and institutional considerations.

Contacts

Press release available on request from Montagnes Magazine :
Tel : 33 - 476 705 411 or e-mail : francois@montagnes-magazine.com

Promotion, organisation :
Sarah Vernier  33 - 675 378 216