Special Piolet d'Or Award 2025

Special Piolet d'Or Award 2025 to Anja Petek and Patricija Verdev.

Slovenian climbers have markedly shaped the history of the Piolet d'Or, but for the first time two Slovenian female climbers will be awarded. Anja Petek and Patricija Verdev will receive the special award for women's mountaineering achievement at this year's ceremony of the most prestigious international mountaineering awards, for their last year's first ascent of the six-thousander Lalung I via a new route and traverse of the mountain in a remote part of the Indian Himalayas. The organizers have also announced the list of outstanding ascents in 2024, among which there are four Slovenian ones that are still contending for the Piolet d'Or 2025 for the most prominent mountaineering ascents of the previous year. The Piolet d'Or awards will be presented between 9 and 12 December 2025 in San Martino di Castrozza, Italy.

The organizers of the Piolet d'Or awards announced on 12 October 2025 at the Sports Festival in Trento the recipients of this year's special award for achievements in women's mountaineering: the Slovenian climbers Anja Petek (Zgornjesavinjski alpinistični klub Rinka) and Patricija Verdev (Alpinistični odsek Planinskega društva Celje Matica) for their first ascent of Lalung I (6243 m). They climbed the Himalayan six-thousander along the eastern ridge via the 2000-meter new route Here Comes the Sun (M6+ AI5+), traversed the mountain and descended along the western ridge and across the north face; they completed the ascent in alpine style between 9 and 14 September 2024.

This special award is intended exclusively to promote women's mountaineering and is awarded for an exceptional women's ascent of the previous year, or to a climber for multiple achievements in the previous period, or for the career of an individual climber. This year the award will be presented for the third time, after last year it was received by the Italian climber Nives Meroi for her exceptional career—with her husband, the border Slovenian Romano Benet, they are the first couple to have climbed all fourteen eight-thousanders—and in 2023 it was received by the climbers Capucine Cotteaux (France), Caro North (Switzerland), and Nadia Royo (Spain), who climbed the east wall of Northern Sun Spire in Greenland.



The international jury and technical committee of the Piolet d'Or, the highest recognition for mountaineering achievements in the world, decided to dedicate the special award for women's mountaineering in 2025 to the ascent of Lalung I, as it is "an exploratory first ascent of a six-thousander in a rarely visited region, the complete traverse of the mountain, pure alpine-style climbing on demanding terrain, and exceptional commitment, especially during the summit traverse in bad weather. All these qualities perfectly reflect the values of the Piolet d'Or award, and we hope that the ascent of Lalung I will inspire future generations of female climbers."

At the end of the remote Lalung valley rise the peaks Chiling I and II as well as Lalung I, II, and III, on the border between the Zanskar and Kishtwar regions. The mountaineering history of this area is poorly documented, and for many years incorrect names and heights caused considerable confusion regarding the peaks, features, and valleys. One thing is clear: before 2024, none of the Lalung peaks had been recorded as climbed.



"In September 2024, the Slovenians Anja Petek and Patricija Verdev, members of a four-member women's expedition, after setting up an advanced base camp (ABC) at 4800 meters, climbed the sharp and demanding eastern ridge of Lalung I in five days. They had to spend a day and a half in the tent due to bad weather. The last evening, just below the summit, they lost the tent poles in the wind and spent the night in bivouac bags. Fog the next morning made orientation difficult, but they reached the summit on 14 September at 9 a.m. They then carried out a long descent along the western ridge, followed by five rappels across the north face to reach the Lalung glacier at 18:30. From there they continued the descent to the advanced base camp, which took another eight hours," they wrote in the rationale. They added that upon arriving at the camp, which they expected to be calm, they found that their colleagues' stay had been anything but relaxed, as the camp had been targeted by bears on several consecutive nights, which tore the tents and carried off a large part of the food. The other pair in the expedition, Ana Baumgartner (AO PD Ljubljana Matica) and Urša Kešar (AO PD Kranj), returned to base camp due to Urša's altitude problems and climbed shorter new routes in the nearby granite north face.

"The honorary award represents a great recognition for years of accumulating experience, for our exploratory spirit, for our will and perseverance, and above all for the trusting relationship that Patricija and I built during the preparations and the expedition, which we maintain to this day," summed up Anja Petek, the most successful Slovenian female climber in recent years, on the happy news, and added: "Obviously, we Slovenians know how to be innovative, bold, and at the same time thoughtful in our ideas and are prepared to invest maximum effort in them. I think this is reflected in Slovenian mountaineering throughout history, given the recognition of Slovenian climbers and ascents in the world. For awards like this, you also have to be in the right place at the right time, so that there is a symbiosis of luck and preparedness."



Petek and Verdev already received the international award for women's mountaineering achievements "jekleni angel" in November 2024 for the ascent of Lalung I, and this December they will receive as the first Slovenian female climbers the special Piolet d'Or award for achievements in women's mountaineering. "Three years ago, when it became known that a special award for women's mountaineering would also be given as part of the Piolet d'Or ceremony, it made me very happy. The organization gave clear support to women's mountaineering. Even today I can't believe what an honor has befallen us," proudly said Anja's climbing partner Patricija Verdev and emphasized: "I hope that people will get from this event mainly encouragement to follow their goals and dreams, to do what makes them happy, and to persevere on their path in the set direction. This is what we did on this expedition."



The highest international mountaineering awards, the Piolet d'Or, will be presented between 9 and 12 December 2025 in San Martino di Castrozza, Italy; among the 70 outstanding ascents of 2024 there are also four carried out by Slovenian climbers. Besides the ascent of the Petek-Verdev pair on Lalung I, also the 2000 height meters long new route by Slovenians Aleš Česen and Briton Tom Livingstone along the western ridge on Gasherbrum III (7952 m) in the Karakoram, the new solo ascent by Matic Jošt on Spao Ri (T9, 6107 m) in the Indian Himalayas via a new route in the north face, and the new route by the Slovenian-British pair Gašper Pintar-Tom Livingstone in the south face of Mt Dickey in Alaska. The recipients of the Piolet d'Or 2025 for exceptional mountaineering achievements in the last year will be announced later; they will be chosen by an international expert jury of seven prominent names from the mountaineering world: Ethan Berman, Aymeric Clouet, Young Hoon Oh, Ines Papert, Enrico Rosso, Jack Tackle, and Mikel Zabalza. In Italy they will also present the Piolet d'Or 2025 for lifetime achievement in mountaineering, the recipient of which is also not yet known.

The history of the Piolet d'Or has been markedly shaped by Slovenian climbers, who have been awarded the highest mountaineering recognition eleven times in 35 years of presentation. The first Piolet d'Or awarded in 1992 for the first ascent along the south pillar of Kangchenjunga (8476 m) was received by Marko Prezelj and Andrej Štremfelj, who in 2018 was also the first Slovenian recipient of the Piolet d'Or for lifetime achievement in mountaineering. In 1997 Tomaž Humar and Vanja Furlan received it for a new route in the northwest face of Ama Dablam (6812 m) in Nepal. In 2007 Marko Prezelj received the Piolet d'Or award for the second time, together with Boris Lorenčič for the new route climbed in the pillar of Chomolhari (7326 m); the same year Pavle Kozjek received the audience Piolet d'Or for the first solo ascent on Cho Oyu (8201 m) and the publication of the photo of the massacre of Tibetan refugees at Nangpa La pass. In 2012 Luka Stražar and Nejc Marčič received the Piolet d'Or for the first route in K7 West (6858 m) in Pakistan, in 2015 for the first ascent in the north face of Hagshu (6657 m) in the Indian Himalayas Aleš Česen, Luka Lindič, and Marko Prezelj, and in 2016 for the first route on Cerro Kishtwar (6173 m) in India Urban Novak and Marko Prezelj, together with American Hayden Kennedy and Frenchman Manu Pellissier. In 2019 Aleš Česen and Luka Stražar received the Piolet d'Or for the first ascent on Latok I (7145 m) from the north side, climbing the seven-thousander in the Karakoram with Briton Tom Livingstone. In 2022 Silvo Karo received the Piolet d'Or for lifetime achievement as the second Slovenian. As the first Slovenian female climbers, Anja Petek and Patricija Verdev will receive in 2025 the special award for achievements in women's mountaineering for the first ascent on Lalung I (6243 m) in the Indian Himalayas.