Alexander Huber is a German rock climber who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of rock climbing. Huber came to prominence in the early 1990s as the world's strongest sport climber after the passing of Wolfgang Güllich. He is the second-ever person to redpoint a 9a (5.14d) graded route by ascending Om in 1992, and has come to be known as the first-ever person to redpoint a 9a+ (5.15a) graded route from his 1996 ascent of Open Air.
Gasherbrum IV, surveyed as K3, is the 17th highest mountain on Earth and the 6th highest in Pakistan, as well as the highest independent mountain under eight thousand meters in Pakistan.
The Trango Towers are a family of rock towers situated in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, in the northern part of Pakistan. The Towers have some of the world's largest cliffs and offer some of the most challenging big wall climbing opportunities. Each year, climbers from around the world embark on expeditions to the Karakoram region to climb these granite faces. The Trango Towers are situated to the north of the Baltoro Glacier and are part of the Baltoro Muztagh, which is a sub-range within the Karakoram mountain range. The highest point within the group is the summit of Great Trango Tower at 6,286 m (20,623 ft), the east face of which features the world's greatest nearly vertical drop.
Douglas Keith Scott was an English mountaineer and climbing author, noted for being on the team that made the first ascent of the south-west face of Mount Everest on 24 September 1975. In receiving one of mountaineering's highest honours, the Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award, his personal style and his climbs were described as "visionary".
The Piolets d'Or is an annual mountaineering and alpine climbing award organized by the Groupe de Haute Montagne (GHM), and previously with co-founder Montagnes Magazine, since its founding in 1992. Golden ice axes are presented to the annual winners at a weekend awards festival based on their achievements in the previous year. It is considered mountaineering's highest honor and is referred to as the "Oscars of mountaineering".
The Latok group is a cluster of large and dramatic rock peaks in the Panmah Muztagh, part of the central Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan. They lie just to the east of the Ogre group, dominated by Baintha Brakk. To the immediate south of the Latok group lies the Baintha Lukpar Glacier, a small tributary of the Biafo Glacier, one of the main glaciers of the Karakoram. On the north side, lies the Choktoi Glacier.
Wojciech Kurtyka is a Polish mountaineer and rock climber, one of the pioneers of the alpine style of climbing the biggest walls in the Greater Ranges. He lived in Wrocław up to 1974 when he moved to Kraków. He graduated as engineer in electronics. In 1985 he climbed the "Shining Wall," the west face of Gasherbrum IV, which Climbing magazine declared to be the greatest achievement of mountaineering in the twentieth century. In 2016, he received the Piolet d'Or for lifetime achievement in mountaineering.
Michael Fowler is a British rock climber, ice climber, mountaineer and climbing author. He is internationally noted for his alpine climbing and was awarded the Piolet d'Or three times, with Paul Ramsden, in 2003, 2013, and 2016, for alpine-style first ascents of faces in the Himalayas. Fowler was one of the first British rock climbers to free an E6-graded traditional rock climbing route, and the first ice climber to free a consensus grade VI mixed Scottish winter route.
Big wall climbing is a form of rock climbing that takes place on long multi-pitch routes that normally require a full day, if not several days, to ascend. In addition, big wall routes are typically sustained and exposed, where the climbers remain suspended from the rock face, even sleeping hanging from the face, with limited options to sit down or escape unless they abseil back down the whole route, which is a complex and risky action. It is therefore a physically and mentally demanding form of climbing.
Catherine Destivelle is a French rock climber and mountaineer who is considered one of the greatest and most important female climbers in the history of the sport. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s for sport climbing by winning the first major female climbing competitions, and by being the first female to redpoint a 7c+/8a sport climbing route with Fleur de Rocaille in 1985, and an 8a+ (5.13c) route with Choucas in 1988. During this period, she was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world along with Lynn Hill, however, in 1990 she retired to focus on alpine climbing.
Alex Honnold is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a climb described in The New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever". Honnold also holds the record for the fastest ascent of the "Yosemite Triple Crown", an 18-hour, 50-minute link-up of Mount Watkins, The Nose, and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. In 2015, he won a Piolet d'Or in alpine climbing with Tommy Caldwell for their completion of the enchainment of the Cerro Chaltén Group in Patagonia over 5 days.
Kazuya Hiraide from Fujimi, Nagano Prefecture, is a Japanese ski mountaineer, Alpine climber, and professional mountain cameraman. Hiraide has won the Piolet d'Or mountaineering award on three occasions.
Alpine climbing is a type of mountaineering that involves using any of a broad range of advanced climbing skills, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large routes in an alpine environment. While alpine climbing began in the European Alps, it is used to refer to climbing in any remote mountainous area, including in the Himalayas and in Patagonia. The derived term alpine style refers to the fashion of alpine climbing to be in small lightly-equipped teams who carry their own equipment, and do all of the climbing.
Hayden Kennedy was an American rock climber and mountaineer who made difficult ascents in North America, Patagonia and in the Himalaya. He died by suicide in 2017 after the sudden death of his partner. He was the son of renowned writer and mountaineer Michael Kennedy and he won the Piolet d'Or for his ascent of The Ogre in 2013, and for Light Before Wisdom in 2016.
Aleš Česen is a Slovenian climber, mountaineer, mountain guide and entrepreneur.
Marek Holeček is a Czech mountaineer, explorer, author and documentary filmmaker. Holeček has received the 2018 Piolet d'Or award for his successful full ascent on the southwest face of Gasherbrum I with Zdeněk Hák, which he achieved in Alpine style.
George Henry Lowe III is an American rock climber and alpinist, noted for his alpine style ascents of difficult and infrequently repeated routes, and his development of traditional climbing routes in the Western United States. He pioneered winter ascents in the North American Rockies along with cousins Jeff Lowe (climber), Mike Lowe, and Greg Lowe. He is also known for his technically difficult ascents of mixed climbing faces in the Himalayas including the North Ridge of Latok I and the first ascent of the East Face of Mount Everest, where the "Lowe Buttress" bears his name. Lowe is currently a resident of Colorado.
Hansjörg Auer was an Austrian mountaineer, noted for his free solo climbs, and particularly of Fish Route in the Italian Dolomites, the first-ever big wall solo at 5.12c (7b+). National Geographic described him as "one of the boldest and best climbers in the world", and he won the 2019 Piolet d'Or for this free solo ascent of the Lupghar Sar West. He died in an avalanche while climbing on Howse Peak in the Canadian Rockies.
Richard Frank "Rick" Allen was a Scottish mountaineer. Allen summitted six eight-thousanders and was the first British climber atop some of Tajikistan's biggest mountains. He had over 40 years experience climbing in the Himalayas at the time of his death.
