Andrej Štremfelj awarded Golden Ice Axe for lifetime achievement in...

In the 26-year history of the Piolet d'Or awards, the world's highest recognition for mountaineering achievements, Slovenian alpinists have received the international award for the most outstanding ascent seven times, and Andrej Štremfelj is the first Slovenian to receive the Golden Ice Axe for lifetime achievement in alpinism, and indeed the only recipient of this prestigious award both for lifetime achievements and for an outstanding ascent, as he and Marko Prezelj earned the first awarded Golden Ice Axe in 1992 for the first ascent of the south pillar of Kanchenjunga.



The Golden Ice Axe, the world's highest recognition for mountaineering achievements, has been awarded since 1992, and the Golden Ice Axe for lifetime achievement was first awarded in 2009 with the idea of honoring alpinists who have inspired subsequent generations of vertical explorers. The first went to the great Italian alpinist Walter Bonatti, who became a kind of godfather to the subsequent ones, who were honored with this international recognition also received by mountaineering legends Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott, Robert Paragot, Kurt Diemberger, John Roskelley, Chris Bonington, Wojciech Kurtyka, Jeff Lowe; Andrej Štremfelj will be the tenth to receive it this year (justification).



"As I said after receiving the PZS lifetime achievement award, people invented awards to popularize alpinism, which I don't think is wrong, it has to be that way for alpinism to have prestige. When you stand alongside Bonatti, Messner, Kurtyka, Bonington, Diemberger and others, you feel honored. This is recognition for everything I've done, just because I love climbing, so I'm happy about it," said the first Slovenian who will receive the Golden Ice Axe for lifetime achievement in alpinism at the ceremony in September in Poland. The Himalayan climber, whom the Alpine Association of Slovenia also honored with a lifetime achievement award in 2017 in the field of alpinism, is also the only recipient of the Golden Ice Axe both for lifetime achievements and for an outstanding ascent, as he earned the first awarded Golden Ice Axe together with Marko Prezelj for the first ascent of the south pillar of Kanchenjunga, the only alpinist in the world to have received the Golden Ice Axe four times.



Andrej Štremfelj (AO PD Kranj) entered Slovenian mountaineering history on May 13, 1979, when he and Nejc Zaplotnik became the first Slovenians and at the same time the first Yugoslavs to summit Everest (8848 m), and in 1990 he and his wife Marija climbed the highest mountain and became the first married couple on the roof of the world. He also summited seven other eight-thousanders: Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II, Shishapangma, south summit of Kanchenjunga, Cho Oyu and Dhaulagiri. The first ascent in alpine style up the south pillar of Kanchenjunga (8476 m) with Marko Prezelj in 1991 was also crowned by the international mountaineering community the following year. "In the first period, when I was still more of a mountaineering kid following Nejc, the highlight was the ascent of Everest, for which the whole team deserves credit, but on the last day I was lucky to get the opportunity and reach the summit. Later, my greatest mountaineering achievement was the ascent of Kanchenjunga, which I drove, and with Marko we succeeded in such a high-quality ascent that is still at the highest level today," reflects the 61-year-old Kranj native, the youngest recipient of the Golden Ice Axe for lifetime achievement to date.



"My perception of alpinism hasn't changed substantially, I've always been equally crazy about mountains, of course I try to move forward with the times. Today, high mountains are perhaps a bit less interesting because we don't take as much time for them, and due to public pressure we also handle failures much harder. Sometimes it seems to me that we had more attempts available, many expeditions ended unsuccessfully, but I took something from each and was able to use the valuable experience later," describes Štremfelj, who in his 46-year mountaineering career was on more than twenty expeditions in the Nepalese Himalaya, made first approaches to several seven-thousanders, and as an instructor worked in the Slovenian school for Nepalese mountain guides in Manang. He also climbed in Patagonia, the Pamirs, the USA, and was on Denali and Aconcagua.



Slovenian alpinists have prominently marked the history of the Golden Ice Axe, having been awarded the highest mountaineering recognition eight times in 26 years of awarding. The first awarded Golden Ice Axe in 1992 for the first ascent of the south pillar of Kanchenjunga (8476 m) went to Marko Prezelj and Andrej Štremfelj, who in 2018 is also the first Slovenian recipient of the Golden Ice Axe for lifetime achievement in alpinism. In 1997, it went to Tomaž Humar and Vanja Furlan for a new route in the northwest face of Ama Dablam (6812 m) in Nepal. In 2007, Marko Prezelj received the Golden Ice Axe award for the second time, together with Boris Lorenčič for climbing a new route in the pillar of Chomolhari (7326 m); the same year, Pavle Kozjek received the Golden Ice Axe by public opinion for the first solo ascent of Cho Oyu (8201 m) and the publication of a photo of the massacre of Tibetan refugees at Nangpa La pass. In 2012, Luka Stražar and Nejc Marčič received the Golden Ice Axe for the Dreamers of Golden Caves route on K7 West (6858 m) in Pakistan, in 2015 Aleš Česen, Luka Lindič and Marko Prezelj for the first ascent of the north face of Hagshu (6657 m) in the Indian Himalaya, and in 2016 Urban Novak and Marko Prezelj for the first ascent route on Cerro Kishtwar (6173 m) in India, together with American Hayden Kennedy and Frenchman Manu Pellissier.