(and thus sponsorship) of French mountaineering. He won the support of , then editor of the Grenoble-based French monthly climbing and mountaineering magazine, Montagnes, and in 1992 GHM and Montagnes announced the first Piolet d'Or award for the best alpine ascent of 1991 at the Autrans Mountain Film Festival.

From the outset, there was some concern over the ethics of rewarding and promoting the dangerous undertaking of modern extreme alpine climbing. After a controversial 1998 Piolet was awarded to a Russian team of which two had died