The Nick Estcourt Award for 2011 has been awarded to British Kyashar Expedition 2011 led by Andy Houseman and his team climber Nick Bullock.

The Award will be £1500 and the Trustees wish them every success with their plans.

In a press release from the award organisation, they stated:

"It is a simple strong objective and the trip has been well researched and presented on time. It fully adheres to the spirit of the award and looks exciting and adventurous."

Commenting on the lack of on time entries for the award on his blog, Matt Heason said:

"I'm not going to name names and shame anybody, but am somewhat surprised by the tardy nature of British mountaineers. I administrate the Nick Estcourt Award - a grant awarded annually to a deserving British expedition. I've administered it for the past 4 or 5 years and have always been surprised by a) the low number of applications, and b) the lateness of these applications. The closing date is Dec 31st. This year we had more than half the applications after the closing date. One of them was an hour and fifty eight minutes afterwards. When you have a whole year to prepare such an application how is it possible to be an hour and fifty eight minutes late? C'mon people, get your act in gear and submit on time please."

NOTE: Applications for 2012 should be received by 31st December 2011 at the latest.

• More info: nickestcourtaward.org