Jordi Corominas has shaped mountaineering in various areas over the course of his long career. With his vision of easy and progressive alpinism, he has built a bridge between two generations of Spanish climbers. He is being honored for his life's work with the 16th Piolets d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Spanish mountaineer Jordi Corominas receives the prestigious Piolets d'Or Lifetime Achievement AwardThe award was first presented to Walter Bonatti in 2009 and has since honored mountaineers whose careers have inspired subsequent generations.
After mountaineering legend Bonatti, the mountaineering prize was awarded to Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott, Robert Paragot, Kurt Diemberger, John Roskelley, Chris Bonington, Wojciech Kurtyka, Jeff Lowe, Andrej Štremfelj, Krzysztof Wielicki, Catherine Destivelle, Yasushi Yamanoi, Silvio Karo and George Lowe.
16th Piolets d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award for Jordi Corominas
Jordi Corominas is a long-time IFMGA mountain guide and lives in Benasque on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. Born in Barcelona, he spent his youth climbing in the Pyrenees and the mountains of La Rioja, where he began to open new routes. In the early 1990s he decided to devote himself fully to mountaineering and became a professional mountain guide.
Jordi Corominas has made significant contributions to various areas of mountaineering: from his personal ascents at the highest level in pure style, his long career as a professional mountain guide (over 30 years of guiding in the Alps), his role as Director of the Spanish National Mountaineering Team from 2002 to 2010, to the training of new mountain guides.
And he continues to do so. Recently he led his 90-year-old friend, the well-known Spanish mountaineer and expedition leader Jordi Pons (the first Spanish mountaineer to climb the Walker Pillar and the Eiger North Face), up the 4107-meter-high Mönch in the Bernese Oberland.
Perhaps most significant is his vision of mountaineering – easy, free climbing, in a modern progressive style – with which he influenced the transition between two generations of Spanish climbers.
link between two generations
Alpinist and journalist Oscar Gogorza writes about Jordi: «Long before I met Jordi, he was already a legend in the small world of Spanish mountaineering. But he preferred to listen rather than talk. I have known him for 25 years and I have never heard him say: 'I climbed this or that.' Never. I have only recently discovered the depth of his CV, which he kept secret for so long.
Jordi is the link between the Spanish mountaineers of the 20th century and those of the 21st century. Through his hands have passed students whom he trained to become mountain guides; through the same hands have passed the talents of the national mountaineering teams, to whom he taught the highest ethical standards - not through lectures, but by example.
Interestingly, despite being so reserved, Jordi loves words. He is an avid reader, studied Castilian and is the founder of a small publishing house of mountaineering literature. He has always believed that the true value of mountaineering lies in its stories. Man and his experiences tell more than just the climbs. In fact, he has written a mountaineering dictionary from A to Z, which, in my humble opinion, is worth more than his famous second ascent of the "Magic Line" on K2.
Shortly after that climb, I made an appointment to interview him. I left at dawn and drove five hours to Benasque, where I found him sitting in the sun, with a coffee and a sandal on a foot that showed frostbitten toes. Three seconds after I sat down, he looked at me with deep seriousness and said he would only tell me the facts of his climb, not his feelings. These were his own, and he did not want to share them. I understood immediately that I had made the trip for nothing.
Ten years later, after an alpine adventure, we both missed the Montenvers train. We had a long, boring hike downhill ahead of us and I told him it was time to tell me about his feelings about K2. He spoke - the wait had been worth it.
During the 2024 Piolets d'Or, I hope someone else will ask him how he felt every time he faced a challenge in the mountains, and not just what he climbed. I also hope he will be as happy at the ceremony as he was the day he met his idol Walter Bonatti, when the Italian received the first Lifetime Achievement Award."
Important ascents by Jordi Corominas
- Pyrenees: He repeated almost all the classic routes in the range and made winter ascents of mythical routes in the 1980s and 90s such as the west-northwest face of the Grand Pic du Midi d'Ossau, the north ridge of the Pique Longue du Vignemale, the central pillar of the Peña Telera and the north face of the Tour de Marboré, as well as two solo attempts on the Pilier de L'Embarradère on the Grand Pic du Midi d'Ossau. He opened new routes both in summer and winter in the Ordesa, Bujaruelo and Benasque regions.
- Patagonia: 2008 First ascent of the northeast face of the 3706 m high Cerro San Lorenzo (ED- to the fore-summit, after connecting with the last section of the South African route on the east ridge). 2012 First ascents of the east pillar of the 2640 m high Cerro Moyano (TD+) and the east pillar of the 2580 m high Cerro Norte (TD).
- Peru: 2003 First solo ascent of the Japanese route on the south face of Chopicalqui (TD) at 6.395 m. 2005 New variants (at the beginning and end) of the French route of 1973 on the north-east face of Huascarán Norte (TD-, 6654 hours there and back). Other speed solos in the same season: First solo ascent (and very rare repetition) of the Ecuadorian route (TD+) on the south face of Santa Cruz (12 m) in six hours, followed by a descent via the original German route (TD-) on the same face in three hours; Solo ascent of the north-west face (TD-) of Sarapo (6259 m) in three hours, followed by a descent via the north-east face (TD-) in two hours. 6127 First ascent of the west face of the 2007 m high Siula Chico (ED+) on the third attempt in five years. A new route on the north face of the 6265 m high Huascarán Sur (TD+). First ascent of the south face of the 6768 m high Nevado Copa (ED, up to the summit ridge). 6188 First ascent of a direct completion of the French route on the 2011 m high Chacraraju Este (ED). A solo ascent of the 6001 m high Artesonraju.
- Himalaya & Karakoram: 1991 Dhaulagiri (8167 m), normal route. 2004 Second ascent of the Magic Line (south-southwest ridge) on the 8611 m high K2, solo ascent from about 8.300 m and descent via the Abruzzi spur. At that time the Magic Line was considered the most technically difficult route on the mountain and there has been no further ascent since then. 2006 Speed ascent of the 8035 m high Gasherbrum II via the normal route in a single attempt. 1988 Reached 7.400 m on the original Austrian route of the Lhotse Shar. 2000 Attempt on the northeast ridge of Everest. 2006 Ascent of the west face and south ridge of Gasherbrum IV up to about 7.200 m in alpine style. 2010 Attempt on the Austrian route of Lhotse Shar and on the south face of Lhotse, both in alpine style. 2013 Attempt on the south face of Xixabangma in winter, in alpine style, with approach from Nepal. 2019: Attempt in alpine style on the original route of the south face of Nuptse and again on the Austrian route of Lhotse Shar.
- Further ascents – all in alpine style: 1990 Third overall ascent and first in alpine style on the west ridge of the 6904 m high Thalay Sagar (V+ 60°). 1994 Second ascent of the southeast ridge (Bonington-Fotheringham route) of the 6501 m high Shivling West (ED-). First ascent of "Kundalini", east face of the 6450 m high Meru North (6b, A2+ 85°). 2002 Attempts at new routes on Meru South and Meru North. 2009 First ascent of the south pillar up to the south forepeak (6600 m) of the Tengi Ragi Tau (ED). Second (solo) ascent of the east-southeast face/gorge (Steck route, M5 50-60°) on the 6495 m high Tawoche. Solo ascent of the 6812 m high Ama Dablam via the south face. 2011 First ascent of the west face and southwest ridge of the 6700 m high Cho Polu (TD). 2014 Second ascent of the west face (Infleti, TD) of the 5945 m high Chugimago North and the first ascent of the direct south face of the 6257 m high Chekigo (AI5/5+ M6).
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Credits: Cover photo Jordi Corominas, text Piolet's d'Or