2022

K2 8614m, P4020m (known in China as Qiáogēlǐ Fēng/乔戈里峰)  - photo Eric Gilbertson

(released under the GNU Documentation license (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.en.html) 

Lifetime Achievement Award:  Barbara Lilley

For over seventy years of adventuring and peak-bagging, both at home in the USA and abroad.

Barbara was born in Salinas, California, USA in October 1929.  Her parents were school teachers. During their vacations, she went camping and hiking with them from an early age.  She spent her working life in the aerospace industry, retiring in 1986.

Barbara’s first real ascent was to the top of Alta Peak 3415m in the Sierra Nevada in July 1947.  In 1949 she began cross-country peak-bagging in the Sierra Nevada with friends from the Sierra Club, climbing Mount Whitney 4419m, P3072m in that year.

Barbara’s first foray outside the USA was to Canada in 1954 for ascents in the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia.  In 1955 she was in Mexico for Pico de Orizaba 5636m, P4922m.

Other high prominence peaks climbed subsequently have included Denali 6190m, P6140m (1964), Mount Logan 5959m, P5250m (1971) Aconcagua 6962m, P6962m (1973), Kilimanjaro 5895m, P5885m (1974) and Volcán Chimborazo 6267m, P4122m (1975). 

Aside from her profuse peak-bagging across the USA, she has also hiked and climbed in Argentina, Canada, Ecuador, Mexico and Tanzania.  For many years Barbara had the largest number of distinct peaks logged on the Peakbagger website.  

A two-part article about her climbing life can be found here and here.  Her home page on Peakbagger can be found here.

Now aged 93, Barbara is a worthy first holder of this Award.

2022 Peak-bagger of the Year Award – Rob Woodall

For his world-record number of new Ribus (P1000m peaks) climbed in a year – 145 across Angola, Argentina, Canada, France, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Spain and the USA.

Rob was born in 1960 and lives in Peterborough, in eastern England, UK.  Rob works in the water industry.  He is fortunate to have an employer that promotes flexible working.  He's been able to negotiate periods of unpaid leave each year, until he took semi-retirement in 2020.

Rob started peak-bagging 'seriously' in 1981, on Ben Lawers 1214m, P915m, in Scotland.

Rob's first overseas trip was to the Alps in 1999, focusing on 4000m peaks.  Barre des Écrins 4102m, P2044m in France on that trip was his first Ultra.  His first peak-bagging outside Europe was to south-east Asia in 2007, in the exalted company of Bob Packard and the late Adam Helman.  Rob owes many of his Ultras to Adam's organisational skills. 

He's been ticking off various British lists since the 1980s and is one of the only two people so far to have completed the British P100m hills (HuMPs), a list numbering nearly 3000 summits, including several rock climbs. 

His overseas focus has been P600m, but especially the P1500m category.  Latterly he has also focused on P1000m, which involves less travel.  He is keen to discover whether a P-Index of 1000 is achievable.  

Rob also bags islands, the occasional sea stack, trig points and benchmarks.  He has visited all the British trig pillars.  He enjoys nature, especially wild flowers, as they don't fly or run away!

Rob’s peak-list is ever expanding, so for the latest position see his Peakbagger homepage here. 

HoFMeisters’ Award – Eric Gilbertson

For his expedition to the Karakoram in July 2022, with successful ascents of Broad Peak 8051m, P1701m and K2 8614m, P4020m without supplemental oxygen;  and assistance of climbers in distress on K2 during his descent.

Eric lives in Seattle, WA, USA.  He has been peak-bagging for the past 15 years, starting in college in the northeast United States.  In 2012, while in grad school, he finished climbing all the US state highpoints with his twin brother Matthew, and in 2019 he became the fifth person to climb the Canada province/territory highpoints.

His main goal now is to climb all the country highpoints in the world.  In recent years he’s made it up some of the tougher ones like Pik Pobeda 7439m, P4146m (Kyrgyzstan), K2 8614m, P4020m (Pakistan), Noshaq 7492m, P2024m (Afghanistan), and this year Kangchenjunga 8586m, P3922m (India).

When at home in Washington State, Eric likes making first winter ascents of peaks in the Cascades.  The trips with most fun involve as many different modes of travel as possible – e.g. snowmobile, zodiac boat, ski, ice and mixed climbing.

Eric's homepage on the Peakbagger website can be found here.

Contribution to Peak-bagging Award – Greg Slayden

For his committed work in creating, developing and maintaining the Peakbagger website, which, among other things, has created a worldwide online community of peak-baggers and many lasting friendships.

Greg has been actively peak-bagging since he was ten years old, hiking to summits in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA.  He got hooked on the US State high points in the 1980s and finished them on Denali 6190m. P6140m in 1997. 

Since then, he has been hiking, climbing, and skiing on major peaks all over the world, making progress on various lists, and trying to get respectable personal totals in key prominence categories.  

Some of his notable climbs include Mount Kenya 5199m, P3825m, Mount Fairweather 4671m, P3951m, Barbeau Peak 2616m, P2616m (Canada), Aconcagua 6962m, P6962m, Beerenberg 2277m, P2277m (Jan Mayen), Mount Columbia 3741m, P2361m , Monte Rosa – Dufourspitze 4634m, P2165m, Mount Assiniboine (Canada) 3616m, P2082m, Goode Mountain 2084m, P1161m (USA-WA), and North Palisade 4341m, P882m (USA-CA).

In 2004 he started a little hobby site called Peakbagger.com, and since then it has grown beyond anything he could have possibly imagined. 

Greg lives near Seattle and attempts to balance his full-time day job, family obligations, work on the Peakbagger website, and getting out into the mountains whenever possible.

Greg's homepage on his website can be found here.