The 24th Piolet d’Or awards will be held in La Grave, France, on April 16 and 17.

The Piolet d’Or have been called the Oscars of alpine climbing. Every year, a jury of accomplished alpinists select a longlist of noteworthy ascents. They then decide what climbs are worthy of the year’s award.

While it is difficult to award a climb as being “better” than others, the jury follows a charter that outlines criteria for evaluating performances. View the list here.

In 2014, Ian Welsted and Raphael Slawinski became the first Canadians to be awarded the Piolet d’Or for their first ascent of K6 West.

For the 2016 award, Canadian Paul McSorley made the list for his first ascent of Mount Waddington’s Southwest Buttress with Ines Papert and Mayan Smith-Gobat. McSorley wrote about the impressive climb for the final issue Gripped magazine in 2015.


Will Stanhope from B.C. also made the list with Matt Segal for the first free ascent of the Tom Egan Memorial Route 5.14 in the Bugaboos. Stanhope wrote about the send for the current issue (April/May 2016) of Gripped magazine.

The third Canadian to be nominated is Marc-Andre Leclerc with American Colin Haley for the Reverse Traverse of the Torres called Travesia del Oso Buda, a 1,200-metre M6 5.10 C1.

Americans David Allfrey and Cheyne Lempe were nominated for their impressive first ascent of Deconstructing Jenga 5.9+ A3+ 900m on Great Cross Pillar on Canada’s Baffin Island.

South Americans Natalia Martinez and Camilo Rada were nominated for their climb up Canada’s Malaspina via the north flank and east ridge with 1,900 metres of climbing at TD AI2 55-65°.

The complete 2016 longlist can be seen here.

Thamserku – Piolets d’or 2015 Winner from Planetmountain.com on Vimeo.