Helias Millerioux awarded the Piolet d’Or for Nuptse Expedition
Helias Millerioux is a 30 years old mountain guide from France, top-level alpinist, and extreme skier. Now based in Chamonix, he has spent the last years travelling around the world for guiding or going on personal expeditions.
When it comes to full commitment, Helias is clearly the man. He skied last year the Nant Blanc, one route in the North Face of Aiguille Verte where there are NO mistakes allowed, also adding to his list of summit the Denali, Aconcagua South Face and many others.
Last weekend, the 23rd of Sept, our SCOTT Athlete and good friend Hélias received in Ladek, Poland, the 2018 Piolet d’Or for his achievements in climbing a new Route up to Nuptse, a 7861m summit located in Nepal.
When you ask people what the most prestigious prizes in the world are, you get a handful of suggestions. There is the Football World Championship title, the Oscars, the Nobel prize, Olympic Gold medal and maybe a few come up with the Pulitzer prize for achievements in literature and journalism. But for mountain climbers and mountaineers, the most prestigious prize you can receive is a Piolet d’Or (Golden Ice Axe).
Piolet d’Or or Golden Ice Axe is basically the ultimate recognition in the world of Mountaineering and Hélias will confirm. “It’s not the kind of award you get many times in your life.”
What did they do to deserve that? Together with his friends Frédéric Degoulet and Benjamin Guigonnet they have climbed a new difficult route up the South Face of Nuptse, Nepal Himalaya. The stunning almost 8000m high peak that was first climbed in 1961 by British-Nepalese expedition led by Joe Walmsley that chose the circa 2500m high and almost 5km wide South Face as the ambitious line of least resistance to the 7,864m main summit.
58 years later Hélias and his friends from “La Gang des Moustaches” made it through their own itinerary and can be proud for their huge achievements… and not only them, the entire mountaineering community is proud of this achievement and that’s why they got a Piolet d’Or.
And we are not speaking here about an expedition in your back garden or close to any big city or hospital. When you are there, you are just with your friends and that’s it. Any small problem can turn into a complete disaster…Just hearing Hélias speaking about this ascent and the full project gives you a good impression about what commitment means.
“It took 3 years to ascend the Nuptse, 3 years of attempts before succeeding in dominating this gigantic wall near Everest and Lhotse. I remember 2015, 2016 and 2017 as truly fantastic, intense years.
On 19 October 2017 at 15:00 hours, Benjamin Guigonnet, Fred Degoulet and I, Hélias, reached the summit of this incredible mountain: it was an overwhelming experience.
The first attempt was made in 2015 with Benjamin Guigonnet and the collaboration of the late Ueli Steck and Colin Haley. That year unfortunately the endeavour was not successful. We got caught in a snowstorm and high winds at a bivouac at 6,900 m. Too risky, there was no point in continuing.
In 2016, there were 4 people in the group: Fred Degoulet, Ben Guigonnet, Robin Revest and me. We really wanted to open this new route, which tops out in the highest part of Nuptse, Nup2 at 7,742 m. This time we were forced to turn back at 7,350 m on the very last day of the ascent due to a strategic error. Having concentrated all our efforts on reaching the summit, which involved 700 metres of elevation gains, we had decided to set off with the lightest load possible, however, observing our timing along the way, we realised that we would never have managed to reach the summit at a reasonable hour without any food or bivouac equipment. And then you know what it means if you continue…so we were forced to give up.
During the last attempt, in 2017, with Benjamin Guigonnet and Fred Degoulet, we finally succeeded in climbing this immense 2,200 metre high Nuptse face in 6 days with 5 bivouacs on the way up. The descent required one bivouac and one and a half day’s walking. This huge rock face took up all in all 8 days of our lives. We therefore achieved our dream, which was rewarded with the Piolet D’Or 2018 for the ascent of the year 2017.
For us, The Piolet D’Or is the Oscar of mountaineering. It is the acknowledgement of our peers, our mountaineering colleagues and of what we have accomplished over the many years spent climbing mountains, and of the attempts and efforts we have made. It is a truly honor to received one of this award and we are very happy and proud.”
Congratulation to Hélias and his friends for their achievement and we are already looking for the next adventures.
