Don Bowie's Support Team is proud to announce that on April 25, 2009, at the Piolets d'Or ceremony in Chamonix, France, Don Bowie along with Simon Anthamatten (Swiss), Alexey Bolotov (Russian), Horia Colibasanu (Romanian), Ueli Steck (Swiss), and Denis Urubko (Kazakh), were the first climbers to be awarded the "Spirit of Mountaineering" Commendation by The Alpine Club . They received this award for their attempt to rescue Inaki Ochoa de Olza on Annapurna in May 2008.

"The ‘Spirit of Mountaineering' Initiative was announced by British mountaineer Doug Scott at the 150 year anniversary of the Alpine Club at Zermatt in 2007.

The aim of this Initiative is to acknowledge and thank persons who ‘In the true Spirit of Mountaineering have shown unselfish devotion to help a fellow climber endangered in mountains, and in doing this have sacrificed their own objective or put their personal safety at risk'.

Through this Initiative the Alpine Club wish to promote awareness of the importance of good behaviour in mountains as set out in the UIAA Tyrol Declaration."  (Frank Cannings, for The Alpine Club http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/)

Pablo Ochoa de Olza, brother of the climber who perished despite the gallant rescue attempt wrote:

"My family and myself find this a great recognition for them. They are great examples for the rest of us. They had a real hard time, no romanticism in it at all. Bad weather conditions, lots of snow, no food, no proper gear, terrible conditions. Ueli went through hell, Simon backed him up all the way with no reserve and risked his life over and over, Alexey, Horia... (what to say?) Denis and Don running up like if it was Mont Blanc! There is a bunch of great men in this story. We believe we have a big debt with them, a bill we will never be able to pay enough, but one thing we can do: we can tell anyone who would listen who they are, what they did and their amazing acts... That we do. "

For a contemporary report of the incident see The Independent 31/05/08 "Into the Death Zone"