The most prestigious climbing award `Piolet d]Or’ was presented in Grenoble (France) on the 25st of February.

Photo by A.Piunova

The climb of Alexander Odintsov’s team up the North Face of Jannu (7710 m, Himalayas) was recognized as the most important event of the last climbing season.

It is the 14th time when GHM club and Montagnes Magazine award `Piolet d’Or’. The honorable prize was established in 1991. It is aimed to mark the most important climbing achievements. Special qualified jury, that includes most prominent climbers and several outdoor journalists, chooses a winner from several candidates. In this, 2005 year, there were six nominees. One of them – a team of Alexander Odintsov – was declared to be the absolutely best.

Russians have captured climbing `Oscar’ for the fourth time. And each time their expeditions used BASK equipment. Here they are:

1998 – a team from Yekaterinburg; climb of the West Face of Makalu
2002 – Valery Babanov; solo-climb of Mery The Central
2004 – a duo of Valery Babanov and Yuri Koshelenko; climb of Nuptse
2005 – a team from Saint-Petersburg leaded by Alexander Odintsov; climb of the North Face of Jannu

A team of Alexander Odintsov, an author of `Russian Way – Faces of the World’ project, has been nominated for `Piolet d’Or’ three times. Three of seven `Russian Way’ routes were qualified by experts as extra-class climbs and included in shot-list of a `Piolet d’Or’ competition. Russian routes up Bagirathi (India) and Trango-Tower (Pakistan) were included in a top-100 list of best climbs of the 20th century, but they didn’t win `Piolet d’Or’. This time a climb of the North Face of Jannu, this vertical 7000+ route that was considered to be one of the hardest technical climbs throughout all history, was estimated at its true worth and got its just reward. We congratulate our compatriots – new owners of `Piolet f’Or’!

02.03.2005