Piolet d'Or took place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (France) and Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley (Italy) on the 24th and 25 April 2009. The 2009 awardees were: For 2008, the Piolet D'Or was canceled. The co-founders of the award decided to initiate a new process for selecting the nominees and winner, and the process could not be completed on a timely basis for 2008. The 2007 Piolet d'Or was awarded on January 26, 2007 in Grenoble, France. The winners were: Other finalist were: Piolet d'Or The Piolet d'Or (, French for "Golden Ice Axe") is an annual mountaineering award given by the French magazine
D major is also the case with all other orchestral strings. It is thus no coincidence that many classical composers throughout the centuries have chosen to write violin concertos in D major, including those by Mozart (No. 2, 1775, No. 4, 1775); Ludwig van Beethoven (1806); Paganini (No. 1, 1817); Brahms (1878); Tchaikovsky (1878); Prokofiev (No. 1, 1917); Stravinsky (1931); and Korngold (1945). The key is also appropriate for guitar music, with drop D tuning making two D's available as open strings. For some beginning wind instrument students, however, D major is not a very suitable key, since it transposes to E