The 2026 Golden Piton Awards

Since 2003, the Golden Pitons have honored bold, technical, and iconic ascents from the most legendary climbers. From recognizing the hardest big wall free ascent in the world (The Dawn Wall) to the world’s first V17 boulder (Burden of Dreams), the Golden Pitons celebrate notable style, remarkable difficulty, and lasting impact.

Past Golden Piton winners include Ashima Shiraishi, Daniel Woods, Mason Earle, Alex Honnold, Michaela Kiersch, Beth Rodden, Tommy Caldwell, Adam Ondra, Margo Hayes, Jimmy Chin, Sasha DiGiulian, Conrad Anker, Chris Sharma, Hazel Findlay, Will Gadd, and dozens of other climbers who have pushed the boundaries of the sport.

This year, with the help of a distinguished panel of judges, Climbing will award three Golden Pitons for outstanding climbing achievements in 2025.

Eligible achievements include, but are not limited to, aid climbing, alpine climbing, bouldering, buildering (urban climbing), deep water soloing, free soloing, ice climbing, indoor/board climbing, mixed climbing, mountaineering, speed climbing, sport climbing, and trad climbing.

From now until January 31, 2026, general nominations are open for the most inspiring ascents of 2025.

Submit your nominations here

Award Details

In years past, Climbing has divided the Golden Pitons into various categories such as “Breakout Performance” and “Climb of the Year.” This year, there will only be one general category that is open to ascents in all styles of climbing except competition climbing. See our FAQs below for details.

Nominate a 2025 achievement for a Golden Piton. 

In the nomination form, please include the full name of all climber(s) involved and the name, date, location, and technical difficulty of the ascent. You may also wish to include details on style, preparation, distance/altitude, rock type, ethics, historical context, and any additional factors that make this achievement stand out as one of the best of the year. All eligible achievements must have been completed (but not necessarily started) in the calendar year 2025.

If you don’t have detailed information about the climber you wish to nominate, please include the name and contact information for someone who does.

Nominations are open to the public now and will close on January 31, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. All winners will be announced on March 10, 2026 on Climbing.com and across Climbing Magazine’s social media platforms.

Meet the Judges

Tommy Caldwell

Tommy Caldwell is one of the world’s leading sport and trad climbers. His accomplishments include more than a dozen first free ascents and multiple significant speed records on El Capitan, first ascent of the Fitz Traverse (5.11d; 13,000ft) with Alex Honnold in Patagonia, and the first ascent of Flex Luthor (5.15b), which is considered America’s first 5.15 sport route. Caldwell won a Golden Piton in 2004 for making the first free ascent of El Capitan’s Dihedral Wall (5.14a; 3,000ft), which was the hardest free big wall in the world at the time. Eleven years later, he won a second Golden Piton for his free ascent of The Dawn Wall (5.14d, 2500ft) with Kevin Jorgesen over a 19-day push. He is also the recipient of National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year Award and the 2015 Piolet d’Or.

Beth Rodden

For nearly 30 years, Beth Rodden has been a titan in the sport of climbing. After winning four national championships, she became the youngest woman in history to send 5.14a with To Bolt or Not to Be. Then, in 2005, she became the first woman to free two El Capitan routes, with her and Tommy Caldwell’s first ascent of Lurking Fear (5.13c; 2,000ft) and second free ascent of the Nose. Rodden won her first Golden Piton in 2004 for making the first ascent of The Optimist (5.14b), the first 5.14b established by an American woman. In 2008, she won a second Golden Piton for making the first ascent of Meltdown (5.14c), a 60-foot finger crack in Yosemite that stood for 11 years without a repeat. Seventeen years later, it is still one of the hardest trad pitches in the world and the hardest trad route established by an American woman.

Mason Earle

While Mason Earle is retired from climbing, his name spoken around a campfire still inspire elite crushers to aim higher and challenge what’s possible in the sport. Earle was one of the world’s leading trad climbers until 2018, when he was grounded by a sudden onset of myalgic encephalomyelitis. Five years earlier, Earle, Nik Berry, and David Allfrey won a Golden Piton for establishing a free link-up of two routes and some new terrain on Mt. Hooker to create Wyoming’s hardest alpine rock route. Then, in 2015, Earle won a second Golden Piton for two notable trad ascents: freeing the Heart Route (5.13b; 2,800ft) with Brad Gobright on El Capitan, and making the first free ascent of Stranger Than Fiction (5.14-), an overhanging finger and hand crack in Moab, Utah that remains a testpiece for the world’s most skillful crack climbers. Earle has also sent the legendary Cobra Crack (5.14) and established some of the hardest offwidths in the U.S., including Earle Struggs (5.13) and The Price of Evil (5.13b).

Kitty Calhoun

Kitty Calhoun is a celebrated alpinist and mountain guide based in Utah and Colorado. In 1990, Calhoun became the first woman to climb Makalu (27,838ft), the fifth-highest mountain in the world, and by the technical West Pillar ascent. Some of her other accomplishments include the Cassin Ridge (V 5.8 AI4; 8,000ft) on Denali (20,310ft), the first American female ascent of Dhaulagiri (26,795ft) in Nepal, the second ascent of the Bouchard-Meunier Route (ED+ 90 degrees) on Chacraraju (20,039ft) in Peru, and three Grade VI first ascents in Kyrgyzstan. She has guided climbs in Alaska, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Nepal. Calhoun is the recipient of the Robert and Miriam Underhill Award, the Mugs Stump Award, and the American Mountain Foundation’s Catherine Freer Memorial Award.

Kai Lightner

Kai Lightner is a trailblazing sport climber and leader in the climbing community. After starting climbing at a young age, he has had a successful competition career, with 12 national championships and six Pan-American championships to date. More recently, Lightner has also focused on outdoor climbing, including the first ascent of the 5.15a route Death of Villains, and three 5.14d routes in a single week last year. In 2020, Lightner founded Climbing 4 Change, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing BIPOC representation in climbing. He has received the American Alpine Club’s Robert Hicks Bates Award, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Team Hope Award for community service, and been recognized as one of NBC News’s 28 Game Changers Under 28.

Timeline

January 5, 2026 | Nominations open

January 31, 2026 | Nominations close at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time

February 4, 2026 | Climbing editors deliver a shortlist to the judges

March 10, 2026 | Winners announced on all platforms

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a limit on how many Golden Piton nominations I can submit?

No. You can submit as many nominations as you wish until the nomination form closes on January 31, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. Do not submit multiple nominations for the same climber, however—this will not increase their odds of winning.

Can nominations be anonymous?

Nominations are anonymous by default, and identifying yourself is not required. However, it is helpful to leave the name and contact information of someone who has extensive knowledge about the ascent to assist in fact-checking if needed.

If multiple people nominate an ascent, does that increase its chances of winning?

No. The judges will not know how many times an ascent was nominated.

Can I just DM @climbingmagazine to send in a nomination?

No. Nominations received outside of the nomination form will not be tracked.

Can I nominate my own accomplishments for Golden Pitons?

Yes!

Does nominating myself hurt my chances of winning?

No. The judges will not know if someone nominated their own accomplishment.

I already submitted a nomination, but now I want to add or change something in the form. Can I edit my nomination?

Nominations cannot be changed after they are submitted. If you want to add or correct a submission, you must submit a new nomination form. You may leave most of it incomplete, but make sure to include the name and location of the ascent, the climber(s) involved, and the specific information that you wish to correct.

Will the nominations be fact-checked before the judges make their decision?

Climbing editors will make every effort to ensure that every nomination contains factually accurate information, including the status of the grade (proposed, confirmed, or disputed), before it is presented to the judges.

Can judges submit nominations, too?

Yes. Anyone can nominate an ascent.

What happens if I win a Golden Piton?

Each winner will receive an original, hand-painted Golden Piton engraved with their name and award title, as well as a profile of their ascent on Climbing.com.

How will I know if I’ve won a Golden Piton?

Between February 13 and March 1, Climbing editors will make every effort to contact the winners via phone, email, social media, friends, sponsors, and/or climbing partners to notify them of their selection and work with them on a story about their achievement.

If you know you will be difficult to contact during this time, please ensure that your best contact information is included in the nomination form.

I’ve won a Golden Piton before. Can I win it again?

Yes, past winners can win a Golden Piton again.

Why is competition climbing ineligible for the Golden Pitons?

Today, competition climbing operates within a formal, ranked system of recognition that extends from local competitions all the way to the Olympics. The Golden Piton Awards seeks neither to duplicate nor challenge the existing standards for evaluating climbing performance in competition. For this reason, our readers are invited to nominate climbing achievements in other styles that not currently recognized under any formal scoring rubric.

I’m a competition climber. Can I still be considered for a Golden Piton?

Yes. Competition climbers may be considered for any 2025 accomplishment that is not related to a scored competition. For example, if a boulderer regularly competes in World Cups but also boulders outside, they may be nominated for an outdoor bouldering accomplishment, but not for their World Cup performance.

I have information regarding an ascent that I think may be nominated, but is actually fraudulent, over-graded, and/or misrepresented in the media. How can I let the judges know?

If you want to flag an ascent as problematic, you can fill out the same nomination form for that ascent and include your name, contact information, and concerns. All nominations for a particular ascent will be reviewed before the ascent is added to the shortlist and presented to the judges.

I have a question that’s not been answered here. How can I reach the Golden Piton organizers?

If you have an urgent question about the Golden Piton process, you may contact Associate Editor Sam MacIlwaine by email at smacilwaine@outsideinc.com. Use “Golden Piton:” in your subject line and allow three business days for a response. Nominations will not be accepted by email.