The Piolets d'Or ([pjɔ.lɛ dɔʁ], "Golden Ice Axe") is an annual mountaineering and alpine climbing award organized by the Groupe de Haute Montagne [fr] (GHM), and previously with co-founder Montagnes Magazine, since its founding in 1992. Golden ice axes are presented to the annual winners at a weekend awards festival based on their achievements in the previous year. It is considered mountaineering's highest honor and is referred to as the "Oscars of mountaineering".

The Piolets have progressed from being a competition-like single-award event (Le Piolet d'Or) into a broader celebration of mountaineering and alpinism, with several awards made (Les Piolets d'Or). After a crisis in 2008, the Charter for the awards was rewritten to focus on the style and innovation of the nominations, respect for the mountain, environment, and future climbing generations, and to increase the independence and transparency of the award process; the official name was also changed to the plural.

At the start of the 1990s, it was difficult to raise funds for major mountaineering expeditions in France. The French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing could no longer fund expeditions (as it had done since the French Annapurna expeditions). Alpinist Jean-Claude Marmier, then president of the Groupe de Haute Montagne [fr] (or GHM), suggested an annual prize for "outstanding achievement in the world of alpinism" might increase the public profile (and thus sponsorship) of French mountaineering. He won the support of Guy Chaumereuil [fr], 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 on the route, the rules were changed the following year so that nominees had to have completed their climbs safely. The New York Times remarked on the proportion of Piolet d'Or winners who have subsequently died while mountaineering, but that the awards criteria had been further amended over time to emphasize "style" over pure "risk-taking".

There was also a concern, particularly within the alpine climbing community, on the decision to select a single winner from a list of alpine ascents. The situation came to a head during the 2007 Piolet d'Or awards over accusations by then GHM president, Leslie Fuscko, that Chaumereuil had imposed the shortlist, which led to the resignation of Jury President Andrej Štremfelj. Further controversy occurred when Marko Prezelj, a 2007 Piolet d'Or winner, wrote a public article criticizing the premise of the awards, and whether it was possible, or ethical, to have a single winner.

The 2007 controversy led to a fundamental re-think of the structure of the awards, a long process that required the 2008 awards to be canceled. A new Charter was drawn up and the 2009 Piolet d'Or, the 17th awards, followed a very different format; multiple winners were announced (initially under different headings, but the headings were later dropped), a new "Lifetime Achievement Award" was announced (some awards were accused as being such an award in disguise), and the first female winner was announced. Jury President Doug Scott heralded the post-2008 Charter, saying: "This edition signals the rebirth of the Piolets d'Or. For us there are no winners, no losers. The honored are the ambassadors of an art, a passion."

In 2013, the jury embraced the new Charter awarding Piolets to all six shortlisted nominees, an act that drew criticism from Montagnes. Since 2015, the winners have been announced in advance of the ceremony to emphasize that the ceremony was "a not a competition, but a celebration". In 2016, two of the award's biggest critics, Voytek Kurtyka and Marko Prezelj accepted their awards at the 2016 Piolets d'Or ceremony at La Grave; where only GHM remained from the original founders. In 2018, for the first time in its history, none of the award ceremony was held in France, when the Piolet d'Or ceremony was held at the Mountain Festival in Lądek-Zdrój, Poland. The awards in 2019 and 2020 were also presented at the festival in Lądek-Zdrój. The 2019 awards were overshadowed by the recent deaths of two of the three winners, David Lama and Hansjörg Auer.

The following climbers have won more than one Piolet d'Or since its inception in 1992: