Piolet d’Or Winner Climbs New Sea Stack
Mick Fowler, who's one of the world's most accomplished alpine climbers, recently made the first ascent of a sea stack in Ireland
Mick Fowler, 67, and Chris Harle, 65, both from Derbyshire, have made the first ascent of a 36-metre sea stack called Devil’s Castle in the Atlantic Ocean off County Kerry, Ireland. The climb took six hours shore to shore, with two on Devil’s Castle.
Fowler, who was born in 1956 and began climbing with his father, is an award-winning British alpinist and author. In 2012, he was awarded the King Albert award for his “outstanding contribution to mountaineering.” One year later, he and Paul Ramsden became the first pair to win a Piolet d’Or award twice after their ascent of the Prow of Shiva (6,142 m) in the Indian Himalaya. They received the Piolet d’Or for a third time in 2016 for their ascent of Gave Ding.
“Close up, the stack showed itself to be vertical all round and of a blocky structure, resembling a magnificent Jenga tower,” Fowler told the BBC. “It did not look easy and success was not guaranteed.The climbing involved carefully judging which of the little blocks was the most secure and always pulling or pushing straight down. It’s a careful, judgemental style which I find most rewarding. The summit was as a summit should be, small but perfectly formed. It was spectacular.”
Fowler survived a bout with cancer in 2017 and now wears a colostomy bag, but it hasn’t slowed him down as he’s planning on attempting a new route up an unclimbed face of a 6,000-metre peak in Tajikistan this summer.
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