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The
Piolet d'Or 2002 Festival
The
prestigious Piolet d'Or award will be given out this
week in the organized this year by the French Magazine
Montagnes. The award is given to the most important
Alpine achievement of the year. Chris Bonington is the
lead juror this year.
And
the Nominees are:
Yuri
Koshelenko and his team of 11 climbers for the first
ascent of Lhotse Central [Our favorite]
Marko
Prezelj and Stephen Koch for the first ascent of Lund
on the SW Face, Denali
Mauro
Bole, Mario Cortese and Fabio Dandri for the first
ascent of the east face of the Trango Towers
Patrick
Berhault for Alpine Traverse
Valeri
Babanov for the first ascent of the North face of Meru
Central Peak
Jim
Bridwell and Spencer Pfingsten for the 1st ascent of
the East face, Dent Moore Alaska.
Recent
past winners include such climbers as Vania Furlan
& Tomaz Humar from Slovenia and Thomas Huber
from Germany.
Update:
and the winner is: Valeri
Babanov for the first ascent of the North face of Meru
Central Peak !
Valeri
Babanov is the winner of the Piolet d'or for 2002 for the first ascent of the North face of Meru
Central Peak! This true solo first ascent of the 6310
meter peak was accomplished by climbing a 2000
meter section of mountain over a 5 day period,
alone and without support. This was his second
attempt on this route after failing in Spring
2001. Sir Chris Bonnington gave the award to Valeri.
