The 18th Walter Bonatti – Piolets d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Peter Habeler. The Austrian will receive the award at the end of October in Oisans, France, where the Piolets d'Or are returning after ten years.
The attitude is what's being recognized, not the route.
The Piolets d'Or have announced the recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award: Peter Habeler, born in 1942 in Mayrhofen in the Zillertal valley, a mountain guide since 1965. The Lifetime Achievement Award does not recognize a single ascent, but rather the career of an alpinist. The organizers' explanation focuses on a specific principle: "The Piolets d'Or promote progressive mountaineering in the alpine style – achieving more with less. Our awards represent this ethos, but also a spirit of discovery, dedication, and independence. Peter Habeler's career perfectly embodies all of this," the organization explained in its press release.
The prize is therefore less an honor for individual summits than for the way Habeler reached them: quickly, easily, and without external infrastructure. This is the 18th time the prize has been awarded. Reinhold Messner Messner received it in 2010, and Briton Doug Scott a year later. Both were Habeler's climbing partners: Messner for over two decades, Scott in 1970 on the Salathé Wall, where Habeler became the first European to climb a big wall on El Capitan.
Ten hours through the Eiger North Face
The Habeler/Messner climbing team became known in August 1974 in the Eiger north faceThe two started climbing at 5 a.m., reached the exit cracks at 14 p.m., and were on the summit an hour later. The ascent took them ten hours. The previous climbing team record, set in 1950, was 18 hours. This time wasn't beaten until 30 years later, in 2004. Stephan Siegrist and Ueli Steck in nine hours.
Hidden Peak and Everest without a bottle
One year after the Eiger, the two applied their principle to the highest mountains: in 1975 they achieved the first ascent of an eight-thousander in alpine style on Gasherbrum I (8.080 m), in a round trip of five days and with a small bivouac tent and stove as their entire equipment.
The ascent of the mountain followed in 1978. Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Habeler had recently become a father and was considerably more reserved than Messner beforehand, but in the end the two still climbed together as planned.
I was more afraid of the climb than of the climb itself. The higher we got, the more it felt like I was climbing in the Alps.
Peter Habeler in a portrait of the Piolets d'Or
After that, he declined Messner's invitation to tackle the remaining eight-thousanders and stayed with his family and ski school. Nevertheless, he returned to the Himalayas in the 1980s. Nanga Parbat In 1985, he climbed Cho Oyu; in 1986, and in 1988, he ascended the Eiger North Face with Carlos Buhler and Martín Zabaleta – for him, the most impressive of his expeditions. In 2017, at almost 75 years old, Habeler climbed the Eiger North Face again, together with David Lama, in one day.
Six mountaineers on the jury
The awards ceremony will take place from October 21st to 25th, 2026, in Oisans-Vénéon. The base camp will be Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans, and the program will cover the entire Vénéon Valley. This marks the return of the Piolets d'Or to the Oisans region, ten years after the 2016 edition in La Grave. The 2026 international jury will consist of six renowned mountaineers: Lise Billon, Jordi Corominas, Luka Lindič, Young Hoon Oh, Paul Ramsden, and Enrico Rosso.
The “Big List” 2025 is here.
The “ was published at the same timeBig List"The Piolet d'Or is a collection of significant ascents from 2025, from which the jury selects the Oscars of mountaineering. It was compiled by Lindsay Griffin of the American Alpine Journal. The organizers state that not every listed ascent would qualify for a Piolet d'Or, but all are considered remarkable and adventurous within their respective regions."
The list also includes German-speaking participants: Thomas huber, Jon Griffin and Tad McCrea (both from the USA) with the first ascent of Suma Brakk West (6.120 m) in the Panmah Muztagh, David Göttler with the first alpine-style ascent of the Schell route am Nanga Parbat, Felix Berg on the southeast face of Numbur as well as the new mixed route “Rainborn” by Ines Papert and Amelie Kühne in Norway. From Switzerland, there are Silvan Schüpbach and Filippo Sala twice on the list: with “Luce e Tenebre” (M8 A3) through the north face of Punta Pioda, first climbed in March together with Roger Schäli, and with “Le clin d'œil” (M7 WI3) on the northwest face of the Dent Blanche, which they opened with Olivier Kolly at the turn of the year. Also listed is “Imaqa” (7a C1) in the Graah Fjord in East Greenland: 1.000 meters of climbing on an unnamed, 600 m high formation, first ascended at the beginning of August by Naomie Bürki, Lea Schneider and Ramona Volken from the SAC's youth development program.
The winners will be announced in September.
The Piolets d'Or organizers will announce which ascents will actually receive awards in September. We're incredibly excited to see the winners of these "Oscars of mountaineering" and highly recommend taking a closer look at some of the ascents on the "Big List."
That might interest you
- The preselection for the Piolets d'Or 2024 is announced
- "The highlight of my career" | David Göttler's Climb & Fly on Nanga Parbat
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Cover photo credit: Peter Habeler