"Audacity, always audacity", this was the theme of the Golden Axes rewarding the greatest achievement in Mountaineering alpine style of the year. In the great hall of the Majestic at Chamonix, Saturday night, the five parties candidates to this year Golden Ice Axe. And close to them the two 'giants' of modern mountaineering. First, winner of the "career" Golden Ice axe, Reinhold Messner, first person to climb the 14 peaks over 8 000 meters of the world without oxygen. And secondly, the man who was the first in the world (with his climbing partner, Louis Lachenal) to climb a peak of over 8 000 meters, Maurice Herzog. Two generations of mountaineering, but both fans of the Alpin Style (light and fast), because we can't forget that it was a light and fast party that climbed the Annapurna in 1950. Reinhold Messner paid tribute to its famous neighbor, ensuring that "without the fanatic audacity of Mr Herzog, nobody would have reached the summit of Annapurna, that year". So the entire hall stood up to cheer Maurice Herzog, this old man without fingers and toes since 1950. Then came time to decide the five parties in contest for the 18th Piolet d'Or. A tough choice, as all five teams climbed with enthusiasm, inventiveness, audacity, light style and ethics in their achievements in 2009! The jury has therefore decided to give two awards to two parties. The first, for the Americans Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster and the Scottish Bruce Normand, who came to the end of the north face of West Xuelian (Tien Shan Chinese). This climb is both long, committed and technically difficult. The summit had never been climbed. The second to the Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko, who opened a new and more direct route in Cho Oyo, on a 2 600 m face during an expedition of 10 days. With this ascent, Denis Urubko became the 15th man to succeed the fourteen 8000m peaks, the 9th without oxygen! Le Dauphiné
