The two climbers are among four Britons to receive the award this year, regarded by many to be the ‘Oscars’ of the mountaineering world. Unusually, the jury decided to award Piolets d’Or to all six of the shortlisted projects this year in what has been a great year for pushing the frontiers of Alpinism.

Organisers said: “In light of the very high level of the six ascents, the 2013 jury chaired by Stephen Venables has decided to award each of the six nominated ascents a Piolet d’Or, indicating a possible way forward towards more emphasis on diversity.”

Mick and Paul both received the award once before, in 2003, for opening up the North Face of Siguniang (6250m) in China. Mick had this to say about receiving this year’s honour:

“Yeyy! Paul and I are gold covered again. The Piolet d’Or event in Chamonix and Courmayeur ended last week with all six nominees being awarded Piolets d’Or. British teams were particularly well represented with Sandy Allan and Rick Allen receiving one for their Mazeno ridge ascent and Paul Ramsden and me getting one for our efforts on Shiva. It was generally accepted that 2012 was a brilliant year for alpinism and this presumably contributed to the jury feeling it would be wrong to try and differentiate between the six nominated climbs.

Being as we all tend to seek out remote Himalayan objectives the nominated climbers would probably never get together if it wasn’t for events like this. Co-ordinating arrangements to get mountaineers from Russia, America, France, Austria, Japan and the UK to be in Chamonix and Courmayeur at the same time must have been a nightmare but the end result was an excellent gathering of likeminded mountain enthusiasts. Much as many of us have reservations over awards being dished out for mountaineering it seems to me that the pros very much outweigh the cons.

High profile affairs like this tend to have an impact on the style of climbing and one thing that particularly pleases me is how the pendulum of opinion has swung sharply in favour of small teams climbing alpine style and leaving no trace of their passing. In this respect it was great to see the jury deciding to make a special mention of efforts to remove Maestri’s ladder of bolts and restore Cerro Torre to something approaching its natural state.

On another front, it was great for me to be able to juggle my limited time off work so that family holiday action could coincide with Piolet d’Or week. Skiing down the Vallee Blanche with my children, a bunch of great Piolet d’Or people and enjoying my first ever meal in an alpine hut made for a pretty good day. Apologies though to the folks at this year’s Berghaus athlete camp.  Even with the most careful time juggling being in two places at the same time seems to be impossible.

So, gold covering over and now it’s back to focusing on the bureaucratic challenges of mountaineering. East Tibet is the goal and I am hoping it will be a case of fifth time lucky on the applications. My fingers are firmly crossed.”

The jury of the Piolets d’Or – French for Golden Ice-Axes – said of Mick and Paul’s ascent: “Elegance summarises the traverse of this mountain east of Kishtwar, effected via the arrow-like northeast ridge, dubbed the Prow of Shiva, followed by a descent of the south ridge.

“It was the fifth known ascent of the mountain. Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden, 2003 recipients of a Piolet d’Or, completed a traverse in a nine-day round trip from base camp, finding sustained climbing on the Prow, which ranged from numerous pitches up icy cracks in Chamonix-style granite to long, protectionless leads on thinly-iced slabs reminiscent of winter climbing on Ben Nevis.”

Here’s an interview with Mick and Paul about their award on Epic TV.

It’s been a weekend of firsts; first time out for my new axes, first time on a Scottish winter route without overtrousers, first time using finger gloves rather than my tried and trusted mitts and ….. most proudly of all, first time that I have not been overtaken walking up to the Ben. I must be getting modern and either fell racing is improving my walking speed or (maybe more likely) those out this weekend were particularly slow.

Even after climbing on the Ben for 37 years it’s amazing how it’s still possible to find quality reasonable grade routes that I haven’t done before. This weekend our plan was to start with the old Robin Smith route, Tower Face of the Comb, but on arriving at the foot Paul Ramsden and I felt that a line just to the left looked more attractive and so we climbed that instead.

Sunday was different. Paul was keen for Smith’s Gully on Meaghaidh and the sight of the generously iced cleft left no possibility of us being side-tracked by anything else. I remembered doing Smith’s back in 1979 and finding it absolutely desperate. This time though thick ice was plastered everywhere and solid ice screws provided comforting protection where I recalled none. There were even good belays on the final stance where I recalled belaying on a thumbnail spike in 1979. I explained to Paul that I must have found it easier because I had improved over the intervening 34 years –  he though was rude enough  to suggest that conditions might have had a small part to play.

I am reminded that you never quite know what to expect when winter climbing in Scotland. And that’s one of the things that makes it feel such an adventure. I am ashamed to say that was my first Scottish winter weekend for 3 years. I mustn’t leave it so long next time.

That will be in the autumn so for now it’s fell racing and anything else I can think of to keep the body breathing heavily. The fell racing seems to be going slowly. After a bit of fumbling around in the mist I was lucky to finish this year’s Long Mynd fell race.

Last weekend was the annual Nick Estcourt grant meeting. The winner will be announced soon and I am pleased to say we made a modest contribution to preserving the spirit of adventure alpinism by changing the rules to stipulate that future applicants will have to undertake not to take bolts.

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This trip was to Bergamo, just a few miles down the road from Lecco, legendary home of the Lecco Spiders and Riccardo Cassin. Maurizio Panseri, Tito Arosio, Alberto, Andrea Gaddi, Marco Anghileri and Luca Calvi catered for my every need and Marco and Andrea joined me on a 350m climb ‘via Saronno 87’ on the Medale, a fine shield of limestone just a few minutes walk from the bustling streets of Lecco.

Having ably demonstrated that Himalayan climbing and sitting in a tax office are not commensurate with keeping the rock climbing standard high I was treated to cordon bleu cooking at the offices of the Bergamo section of the Italian Alpine Club before providing the evening’s entertainment.

Andrea’s publishing company has published my book On Thin Ice in Italy so, with Luca ably translating, we kicked off with a private presentation focused on the book and then moved onto a well attended public lecture based on the west face of Gojung in West Nepal that I climbed with Dave Turnbull in 2011.

All in all a great couple of days.

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For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Shiva is an isolated mountain and distant shots Paul Ramsden and I had seen suggested its prominent north facing Prow might give an exciting objective. Thereafter feedback from Italian and Russian teams that had actually seen the objective ranged from:  ‘brilliant line but likely to be rubbish rock’ to ‘horrendously steep, might not be possible’.

It was then with some relief that our first sighting increased our urge to climb it rather than having the opposite effect. The line had everything that Paul and I look for in an objective. Major peak of the area, eye catching line, unclimbed, visible from afar, direct line to the summit, safe from objective danger, steep, technically challenging and finally potential for different descent route. We couldn’t immediately judge the rock or difficulty but first sighting prompted a mutual: – ‘Yeyy! We’ll be well pleased if we can climb this.’

And it just got better and better. After an enjoyably complex approach on glacial terrain the meat of the route turned out to be 4 days of spectacular climbing right out there on the crest of the Prow.

Contrary to expectations the rock on this amazing feature turned out to be top quality granite with the cracks liberally choked with ice. And the situations ranked alongside the best either of us have experienced in the Himalaya. In near perfect weather we enjoyed a bivouac on a hanging rock balcony with 2,000ft of space beneath our feet, memorably hard mixed climbing and thin, icy slabs reminiscent of the best wintery challenges on Ben Nevis. With the technical challenges stretching our ability success was in the balance until the final moment. It really couldn’t have been any better.

In all we enjoyed seven days of ascent and two days of descending the previously unclimbed south east flank. A 9 day round trip from base camp and a lifetime of retrospective pleasure ahead. Time now to focus on keeping the body in trim for East Tibet next year. All we need is the necessary permit – and ability!

Berghaus Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Even better I was introduced to the area’s very fine sea stacks by none other than the undisputed local expert, Iain Miller.

Iain moved to Donegal from Orkney some years ago and since then has almost single handedly been developing the sea cliffs and in particular the stacks, approaching by the novel method of carrying a small inflatable boat and pump to the nearest launching point and then paddling out to whatever takes his fancy.

The quality of the climbing though seems not to have seeped out to the general climbing community. The wild coastal scenery, remote positions and fantastic rock make for exactly my kind of climbing venue. My wife was even inspired to climb a new line on a stack. That hasn’t happened for many years and says volumes about the place.

Thank you Iain for a great introduction. I can’t wait to get back.

You can watch the video of our adventure here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can also download a free 45 page rock climbers guide to the sea stacks found around the west & south west coasts of County Donegal, Ireland here.

Lately it’s been testing a GORE-TEX® shell in the wild and wet Duddon Fell race, sweating terribly in the Great Hucklow fell race and getting out as much as possible climbing on the Peak District crags in the evening.

Aside from that preparation continues apace with Indian bureaucracy testing even the most patient of Civil Servants. Currently we are at the point where the Indian Mountaineering Foundation is awaiting Government permission for us to visit an entirely open area of India for which we apparently all need something called an x-mountaineering visa.  Needless to say the visa processing centre appears not to have heard of these visas.

All very curious but Indian bureaucracy usually works out in the end. I have taken to viewing it as an additional challenge to be savoured when successfully overcome.  And behind it all the 6,000m peak of Shiva awaits in September. Excitement is building.

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You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Another memorable flight in John English’s plane meant Paul Ramsden and I arrived after a full day in the office but still in good time for beer and food in the Jura Hotel. But hot weather does not bring out my finest performances and to finish was enough for me. If it had been a mountaineering trip I would have stopped early with heat exhaustion and bivouacked. Unfortunately though the cut-off times of fell races prevent that kind of relaxed approach.

That was supposed to be the peak of my fell racing season and leave my legs fully prepared for India in September. But in retrospect it was curiously enjoyable so I think I will extend the season to include Duddon Fell race in two weeks time. With luck the weather will be nasty enough to cool me down and give that jacket a good testing at the same time.

Berghaus Online Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Last week though I did the Cosmiques arête on the Aiguille Midi with my son, Alec. It was his first alpine climb and it was brilliant. Not, of course, in the exploratory, challenging way that new Himalayan climbs are brilliant, but in the way that it was great to be out with Alec and it reminded me what a fantastic place the Alps, and Chamonix in particular, is.

We were lucky in that we had great weather (on the early part at least!) and the route to ourselves. And I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where it is possible to get a telepherique to 3,800m, do a wonderful mixed climb and be back down in the bar for the evening.

Being able to experience the pleasures of mountaineering so easily seems almost unethical really. But once in a while you can’t beat it!

Revisiting somewhere that was once very familiar certainly focuses the mind. And being up there in the mountains with Alec, Ollie and Nic avidly soaking in high mountain scenery that they had never experienced before really made the day.

There’s something very special about pointing out the great mountains and climbs (and crevasses!) of Chamonix to young minds so keen to ask questions and understand everything around them. I lost track of the number of times I was asked to photograph crevasses and go through the gory detail of how bad it can be to fall in one.

The Vallee Blanche might not be in the same mould as the remote, unclimbed mountain challenges that I seek out in the greater ranges but visiting it again brought me back to the area of my first difficult climbs in the 1970s and has left me with an urge to return and experience again the unique atmosphere of the Alps. It’s just such a fantastic alpine playground.

The day ended with a sobering sign of the times. Take a close look at the photograph of Tim looking appropriately worried on the stairway up to Montenvers. The sign next to him shows the level of the Mer de Glace in 1990. In just over 20 years the level must have dropped over 100 metres. Wow! What thickness of ice is left I wonder.