Four remarkable ascents will be awarded Piolets d'Or in Ladek-Zdroj on September 19. The year 2019 turned out to be very rich for modern alpinism, with a substantial number of significant first ascents from all over the globe. The protagonists were alpinists of wide diversity. There were notable ascents by the "old guard" of highly-experienced high altitude climbers, but also fine achievements by a promising new generation of "young guns".

Our eight-member international technical jury had the difficult task of making a choice, the intention being not to discard any remarkable climbs, but to choose a few significant ascents as "ambassadors" for modern, alpine style mountaineering. In the end the jury chose what we believe to be a consistent selection of four climbs. These will be awarded next month in Ladek. The four ascents comprise two from Nepal and two from Pakistan. Most had seen previous attempts and were on the radar of number of strong parties. All climbed to rarely visited, or in one case virgin, summits. They are detailed, in no particular order, in the following pages.