Simone Moro awarded by Kofi Annan for the Lhotse rescue in 2001. Simone Moro awarded by Kofi Annan for the Lhotse rescue in 2001. On January 9th, 2003 the mountaineer Simone Moro, from Bergamo, has received from the United Nations Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, the Pierre de Curbetin award, an international recognition for the rescue of Tom Moores, 19-year-old English climber, fallen in the Lhotse West Face, during the night of 21st May 2001. The ceremony has taken place in Paris, in the Unesco Palace, in front of 160 Ministers of Sport, the President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge and Koichiro Matsuura, General Director of Unesco. The award has been assigned, since 1963, by the International Commission of Fair Play, partner of the International Olympic Committee, to athletes recommended by the various national bodies, who have distinguished themselves for having kept high the “fair play” during their sport activity. “Fair play”, “correctness” of Simone Moro is represented by the choice he made in that night of 21st May 2001, towards a person in difficulty. That evening, together with his climbing partner Denis Urubko, Simone had just assembled the small tent of the advanced camp, before the final assault towards the Lhotse summit. At a certain point they heard the cries of Tom Moores’ partner, who was desperate because of his friend’s fall. Simone and Denis, reached by the man, tried to understand what had happened. After understanding the dynamics of the accident, Simone decided to make a reconnaissance on the place of the hypothetical fall, despite the general skepticism. The search continued in the dark. At the beginning no trace. Then the perception of weak groans, that allowed the incredible finding of Tom, exhausted but still alive. Moro took the young mountaineer on his shoulders and carried him to the tent, where he provided first aid. The night in the shelter and the following descent to the lower camps, now helped by other expedition members, permitted Tom Moores’ survival. The following day Simone Moro tried the ascent again, but he soon understood that the previous effort had compromised his energy reserves. Therefore he let the Russian partner go for the summit alone. On May 23rd Denis Urubko reached the 8516-meter high Lhotse, without the use of artificial oxygen. A good story, in short. Made of true values, that put healthy solidarity principles before all the rest. And this is not bad, in a period in which it is always more frequent to fight in the stadium and doping is something normal. In that occasion, Moro and Urubko had on their feet the last prototypes of the Olympus Mons, the most evolved and performing mountain boots on the market. The tests they made during that experience have confirmed the product’s quality also under extreme conditions, with wind as strong as 80 miles per hour (120 km/h) and temperature down to minus 40 degrees. Oscar Durbiano