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Piolet d’Or controversy: Steve House’s bitter prize
Mar 2, 2005 12: 57 EST
Monday we published the Piolet d’Or Award’s winners: The Russian team who opened the first direct route on the north face of Jannu. The Russians worked in shifts on the route, fixing ropes and fighting severe storms and pain for 50 days.
The ceremony’s attending public voted for a different candidate, however: American Steve House. House’s climb, also remarkable, represented a radically different method.
Steve accomplished a speed solo climb, in super-light style (his backpack weighed just 4 kg) on K7, an isolated Karakorum spire. He required four attempts to complete the risky climb.
Feeding the controversy
The Spectator’s Award result exposes a touch of paradox. Last year, Steve House bitterly criticized the Pilet d’Or Jury for rewarding too many ‘heavy expeditions’ instead of ‘pure alpine’ climbs. He referred to the 2003 winners, Yuri Koshelenko and Valeri Babanov, arguing that they climbed Nuptse East by fixing ropes rather than using the light style the wall deserved.
Babanov, who had attempted Nuptse on two previous occasions (the first, solo) and reached the summit after a tough fight against cold weather and other difficulties, was quick to retort caustically: “I rather climb first, and speak later.”
Jury vs. public
The controversy, then, was on. The varied members of the media made their allegiances known, thus further fostering a division amongst ‘purists’ and ‘mountain-siegers.’
This year, things have gotten even hotter: First, when House was nominated for a pure alpine style climb, and later when he was not supported by the Jury, but by the public.
A difficult decision
All the climbs featured in the contest were amazing and they all differed radically from one another. From the nightmarish difficulties overcome by Tomaz Humar and Ales Kozelj on Aconcagua’s South Face, to the simple, beautiful lines on Fitz Roy (by Italians Elio Orlandi, Luca Fava, and Horacio Codo) and Moses Tooth (by Americans Ben Gilmore and Kevin Mahoney).
Even Jean Christophe Lafaille who, against the general opinion of the international climbing community considered his climb to Shisha Pangma a winter climb, accomplished a most remarkable feat. Lafaille would have been applauded anyway for his achievement; a solo climb on an 8000er through a difficult route in severe weather.
Any one of them could have been chosen
All the candidates were on the spot while presenting their projects. Any one of them could have been chosen. As there were numerous factors to consider, the jury needed several hours to decide.
However, Krzysztof Wielicki, a living legend of expedition style climbing (including winter climbs), served as president of the Jury. Other Jury members included none other than Yuri Koshelenko and Valeri Babanov. Might the result have been different if the Jury consisted more of alpine-style supporters? We will never know, but reactions will surely surface soon.
All excellence is equal
At Explorersweb, we follow a wide range of expeditions. Experience has taught us that there are as many methods as there are climbers and adventures. Some risk their lives in speed solo climbs while others fight against exhaustion and storms on vast Himalayan walls.
Some explore isolated peaks in far away ranges and others test their psychological strength in the endless polar terrain. Some climbers lead heavily sponsored expeditions with wide media coverage. Others sell their homes to finance their climbs and we never hear of them. Therefore it is not for us to imply ‘climbing as it is meant to be.’
The spirit of the battle
It’s a spirit we identify with, an inner force in each of us that inspires us to battle against our fears and endure pain in pursuit of our dreams. It may be that spirit, not the method, which really counts.
We have awarded the Russian Jannu team as well, not for their choice in how to climb, but for their will to solve a long-standing Himalayan challenge on a huge, daunting north wall, and for their persistence and capacity to maintain the fight, for months and in impossible conditions, injured but unbroken - to the very end.
Images of the Piolet d’Or Award ceremony (top image of Steve House, middle image of Mikhailov, Oditsov and Ruchkin, and bottom image of Babanov and Koshelenko) courtesy of Mountain.ru
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