One of the most important international prizes in mountaineering, the Piolet d'Or is awarded on 5 February 2003 in Paris. Out of the six nominees, two of the teams are British. Julian Cartwright and Richard Cross have been nominated for their ascent of the NW ridge on Ama Dablam in autumn 2001. Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden for their new route on the north face of Siguniang (6,250m) in China last April. Other nominees include Dean Potter (USA), for his solo link ups on Cerro Torre and Fitzroy, Jean Cristophe Lafaille (France) and Alberto Innurategi (Basque) for their audacious ascent of Annapurna via the south face and long east ridge, Pierrick Keller, Benoit Chanal, François Dupety et Yann Bonneville (France) who climbed the S face of Huandoy South (6,130m) in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru and the Swiss team of Hasler, Harvey et Schaeli for their route up the N face of Arwa Spire Central (6,193m) in the Garhwal, India (attempted by Brits Parnell, Cool, Powell and Wills in 2000).
My guess it'll go to Lafaielle but its good to see UK nominations after Ian Parnell getting nominated last year aswell (I think). Who is Paul Ramsden, never heard of him before? Has he been plucked from obscurity or is he one of these impressive people with a long history of hard stuff but never mentioned in the mags?
Nothing personal to Tyler but... From my profile: Favourite Climbing-Related Discussion Topic- Why British Alpinist don't get the recognition they deserve in this country. I rest my case.
So do you know (of) him then? Thing is, from the early 80's until very recently, with a few notable exceptions (Fowler, Saunders, Pritchard) British alpinists haven't done much of note have they?
I think it is the dumbing down of one of the mags, you know which one and the people who say there is not much being done must read that. Not heard much of Dick Renshaw lately, remember all the hard routes he did with Tasker with relatively primitive gear in the alps. What is he doing at the moment? Another for the climbing heroes. Lots of people are out doing things in poor conditions at a high but not cutting edge and because the mags do not report them they are ignored. When talking to people at the COLAS exhibition and around you find they have been quietly plodding away on lesser things and suddenly they do something noteworthy and become well known. Not by boulderers though;-)
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