Are these awards (Climbing has the “Golden Piton”) a necessary evil in a sport where the top athletes must rely on some commercial aspects — sponsors, slideshows, seminars — in order to make money to climb full time? Or do you see Prezelj’s actions as a sort of elitism?

Rivaud : The role of the Piolet d’or is to leave some milestones to future generations. The subjectivity or the token of its significance should never create business, rankings, or privileges for any mountaineer before another with a sponsorship. 

The Piolet d’or should never be anything more than a recognition shared by all the mountaineering community as a display of the most invested and exploratory mountaineers who realize magnificent achievements in the mountains. These achievements and these climbers are and should remain as a source of inspiration, of dreams, and of motivation for others. They tell us that to commit oneself allows us to do exceptional things and to have exceptional experiences. Our role as journalists is to inform others of these adventures, to help deliver this inspiration and this idea of  personal commitment in all ways of life… as well as to denounce any abuses or mishandlings of any sort. 

The Piolet d’or is already an opportunity to come together and to share opinions and questions about mountaineering at its highest levels and about its influence at the heart of this community and of the general public. 

Descamps: Just as Jean-Paul Sartre refused the Nobel Prize for Literature, there might be in a move such as this one as much panache as there is a very high opinion of oneself: Not only am I strong, but I am even stronger than the others because I allow myself to criticize it, or to refuse it… which we have yet to see. 

I do not believe that the Piolet d’or is a necessary evil in order for climbers to find the finances to carry out their projects. The selected ascents generally have much less finances than other expeditions on the normal routes and with fixed ropes. 

Before the Piolet d’or (and even after?) the most well-known climbers were those who had the best connections with the media. The information that we ourselves ask of the climbers, the questions posed by the jury, and the experiences of each does not guarantee that some ascents that would have deserved to have been nominated will not have been overlooked. However, those who were nominated deserved at the very least to be recognized, and sometimes they would not have been were it not for the Piolet d’or.

But let’s not look only at ourselves here. To have gone to Moscow and to Seoul in order to speak about the Piolet d’or in front of hundreds of climbers, I can bear witness to the fact that the Piolet d’or is also a powerful tool for changing minds towards pursuing a purer style of climbing, more respectful toward men and toward the environment. It is a way to assemble climbers from all over the world around some strong virtues. 

Translation from the French by Christoper Schuhmann. Schuhmann is a world traveler who now resides in Boulder, CO, as a Master's Student in French Literature at the University of Colorado.  His interest in climbing began five years ago in the French Alps, where he first learned to climb on the famous Mer de Glace, near Chamonix. Currently, he climbs in the Colorado Rockies and is preparing for his second trip abroad to France, where he will teach English at the university in Tours.

You may contact Chris at schuhman@colorado.edu for any translation work.