2002 Mick Fowler & Paul Ramsden Siguniang Northwest Face First Ascent

United Kingdom🏔️ 2 Peaks

Mick Fowler

Michael 'Mick' Fowler was born in 1956 in London, England. What made Fowler unique in world mountaineering was his steadfast refusal to become a full-time sponsored professional. For over thirty years, Fowler worked as an executive officer in the United Kingdom's tax department (HM Revenue and Customs), carefully husbanding his thirty days of annual leave to undertake some of the boldest, most audacious exploratory alpine expeditions of the modern era. Fowler began his climbing career on the sea cliffs and crumbling chalk crags of England, developing unmatched mental fortitude and exceptional technical precision on loose, unprotectable rock and frozen turf. By the 1980s, Fowler turned his attention to the great ranges of Asia. In August 1987, alongside British architect Victor Saunders, Fowler completed the historic first ascent of the Golden Pillar (Northwest Face) of Spantik (7,027m) in the Pakistani Karakoram. Climbing in pure alpine style over eight grueling days without fixed ropes or support teams, their ascent set a new benchmark for commitment and technical difficulty at high altitude. Over the subsequent decades, Fowler pioneered remarkable new routes across the Himalayas and Central Asia, almost always in lightweight pairs and targeting unclimbed faces on rarely visited peaks. In 2002, Fowler and Paul Ramsden climbed the 1,500-metre Northwest Face of Mount Siguniang in Sichuan, China, winning the inaugural Piolet d'Or. Fowler and Ramsden went on to win two additional Piolets d'Or: in 2013 for the Prow of Shiva in Himachal Pradesh, India, and in 2016 for the first ascent of Gave Ding (6,571m) in far-western Nepal. Serving as President of the Alpine Club from 2011 to 2013, Fowler's dry wit, modesty, and uncompromising fair-means ethics have inspired generations of mountaineers worldwide.

United Kingdom🏔️ 1 Peak

Paul Ramsden

Paul Ramsden was born in 1969 in Yorkshire, England. Widely considered by climbing historians to be the most technically accomplished and consistently successful exploratory alpinist of the twenty-first century, Ramsden holds an unprecedented record: five Piolet d'Or awards, the highest honor in world mountaineering. Remarkably, Ramsden has never been a sponsored professional mountaineer. Like his longtime climbing partner Mick Fowler, Ramsden works a demanding full-time career as an occupational hygienist and health and safety director, using his standard annual leave to embark on self-funded, purist expeditions to unclimbed technical walls in the Himalayas and China. Ramsden's partnership with Mick Fowler began in the 1990s and became one of the most prolific in alpine history. In April 2002, they made the historic first ascent of the 1,500-metre Northwest Face of Mount Siguniang (6,250m) in Sichuan, China, navigating vertical mixed rock and fragile ice runnels in alpine style over six days, which was awarded the inaugural Piolet d'Or in 2003. Ten years later, in October 2012, Ramsden and Fowler climbed the daunting Prow of Shiva (6,142m) in Himachal Pradesh, India, winning their second Piolet d'Or in 2013. In October 2015, they conquered the virgin North Face of Gave Ding (6,571m) in remote western Nepal, earning Ramsden his third Piolet d'Or in 2016. Ramsden continued his historic winning streak with other partners. In October 2016, Ramsden and British alpinist Nick Bullock made the first ascent of the 1,600-metre North Buttress of Nyanchen Tanglha South (7,046m) in Tibet, securing Ramsden his fourth Piolet d'Or in 2017. In April 2022, teaming up with young Scottish climber Tim Miller, Ramsden forged the first ascent of the North Face of Jugal Spire (6,563m) in Nepal, awarded his record-shattering fifth Piolet d'Or in 2023. Unflinching in his commitment to fair means, Ramsden represents the absolute gold standard of ethical, amateur high-altitude mountaineering.