John Roskelley to be awarded the Lifetime Piolet d'Or

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BlackSpider

Ice climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 23, 2013 - 08:20am PT

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=41461

John Roskelley will become the first American and sixth overall recipient of the Walter Bonatti Award, aka the Lifetime Piolet d'Or, joining Walter Bonatti, Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott, Robert Paragot, and Kurt Diemberger.

Some of his climbs:

-NW face of Nanda Devi (FA)
-Great Trango Tower (FA)
-West Pillar of Makalu
-Uli Biaho (FA)
-Gaurishankar (FA)
-NE ridge of K2 (FA)

BlackSpider

Ice climber

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 23, 2013 - 09:01am PT

Walter Bonatti won the Walter Bonatti lifetime award?

Heh, that's kind of funny.

He won the first Lifetime award, then they renamed it after him following his death.

Stewart Johnson

climber

lake forest

Dec 23, 2013 - 09:13am PT

Congratulations to mr Roskelly
A true mountaineer

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Dec 23, 2013 - 09:35am PT

[Click to View YouTube Video]

They forgot to mention the NA Wall in '70--he's that old, folks--but nobody on that committee likely has done so...no soup for you, butt-sitter!

Roskelly partnered with Meade Hargis and it went like THAT! No messin' about, they did it and got out! An exceptionally fast ascent for that time, I can't remember the details.

couchmaster

climber

pdx

Dec 23, 2013 - 09:39am PT

Roskelly and a buddy wanted to bang out the West Face of the Leaning Tower in a day back in the day. They were both fast and experienced climbers but came up short, did some hanging in slings when it got dark. God bless these little LED headlights today.

Roskelly, in his day, may have been THE most acclimated to high altitude dude in the world. He worked at his conditioning and really had it going. Congrats to John! Nice to see that they haven't watered down that award yet.

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Dec 23, 2013 - 10:05am PT

Read a few books/stories by him or about him when I was starting out. Had the impression he was a pro among mostly amateurs. You tend to get this narrative of abrasiveness when things were not going to his standard. Then you hear the stories of how folks were surprised how pleasant he was when they climbed with him.

Whatever.. the fact remains he was one of the preeminent mountaineer/alpinists of his time. Inspiring a generation for sure.

Grats to a solid choice for the award.

I'd imagine there's some stories folks here could tell.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Dec 23, 2013 - 10:30am PT

I got to know John through his willingness to drive the 90 miles south and do slide-shows of his adventures that my outdoor shop would co-sponsor through either or both, the Washington State U. Outdoor Program, or the U of Idaho Outdoor Program. (the two schools are only 7 miles apart).

It didn't hurt that he was a WSU grad and a one-time member of its climbing club.

He was always pleasant, friendly, and approachable and there were some memorably long BS sessions after the slide shows.

Here's a link to a more complete history by the Spokane Alpine Club.
http://www.spokanemountaineers.org/content/about/honorary_members/jroskelley.php

Stewart Johnson

climber

lake forest

Dec 23, 2013 - 11:09am PT

he climbs Everest with his son.

10b4me

Ice climber

Bishop/Flagstaff

Dec 23, 2013 - 11:16am PT

Congratulations. Interesting selection, imo.

klk

Trad climber

cali

Dec 23, 2013 - 11:18am PT

one of the worst hits to american mountaineering was when roskelley began to succumb to hape-- he was just entering what should've been the peak of his high altitude years. he was clearly one of the strongest high-altitude technical climbers in the world.

he was a huge force in the pnw when i was starting my climbing.

glad to see him getting that kind of recognition now.

american alpinism in the seventies and early eighties was really remarkable-- from nanda devi to w ridge latok and points in between. in some ways, it was the high point of american mountaineering.

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Dec 23, 2013 - 11:43am PT

Was county commissioner in Spokane, WA.

http://www.johnroskelley.com/

Seem to dimly recall that if you were going to climb with him, and, your shoe came untied, you were done as a potential partner...

2008/2009 I charged up several leads on waterfall ice rated Grade V and felt that once familiar adrenaline rush of being on the edge and unable to retreat. In April 2009, Jess and I climbed Slipstream on Snowdome, and bivouacked 200 feet below the summit at minus 10. I'm at it again this winter. At 62, I'm old enough to know better, but too old to remember why. I'm looking forward to climbing some classic routes this summer and maybe, just maybe, getting back to the Himalayas for an alpine route this fall.

Still gettin' after it...must be all that huntin'...

Great award!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Dec 23, 2013 - 12:50pm PT

Great to see credit given where credit is due and the award couldn't go to a finer man than John.

I just got to meet my fellow Norwester at the Jeff Lowe event and liked him and his wife straight away.

Congratulations on another first to add to the already impressive list compiled by Maestro Roskelly.

Three Cheers!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Dec 23, 2013 - 08:33pm PT

John mentioned his first bout with HACE when talking about climbing with Jeff at the recent Metanoia fund raiser in Golden. He stopped being able to see very well as the first indication.

Oplopanax

Mountain climber

The Deep Woods

Dec 23, 2013 - 10:47pm PT

Why did they give a lifetime achievement award to Roskelley before Beckey?

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Dec 23, 2013 - 11:23pm PT

Re----

Why did they give a lifetime achievement award to Roskelley before Beckey?

It is a worldwide climbing award. Roskelly did a lot of bold new routes on big mountains in the Himalayas & Beckey did a lot more new routes on smaller mountains in the U.S. & Canada.

Roskelly deserves the award for worldwide achievement.

Beckey deserves to be recognized for all the first ascents he has done in North America.

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Dec 23, 2013 - 11:39pm PT

Congratulations, Mr. Roskelley! (it was so neat to see him
at the Jeff Lowe fete just a few days ago, even if I didn't get
to meet him)!

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Dec 24, 2013 - 12:12am PT

What an impressive list of achievements. I am sure it is only a small percent of what would impress a regular person. Climbs guys like him do yearly that normal people do not notice are usually even more impressive.