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David Breashears - four-time Everest summiteer and mountain filmmaker - will be one of several prominent mountain figures and a special guest at this year's Banff Mountain Book Festival which runs November 3 - 7, 1999 at The Banff Centre. Breashears, well known for his popular 1998 IMAX film Everest, is an advisor to a new film being made on the Everest expedition to find traces of historic 1920s mountaineers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. The discovery of Mallory's body, high on the mountain, has excited climbers and historians around the world. This fall, Breashears and Audrey Salkeld will celebrate the publication of their new book, The Last Climb: the Legendary Everest Expedition of Mallory and Irvine, rushed into print after the successful expedition. The Banff Mountain Book Festival, the only one of its kind in North America, will also feature readings, seminars, a book fair, book signings and launches, and an international competition. Festival tickets go on sale Monday, July 5, 1999. "This festival is a celebration of mountain literature which brings together writers, publishers, editors, photographers and ¾ of course ¾ readers," said Bernadette McDonald, Director of The Banff Centre for Mountain Culture which organizes the event. Other program highlights this year include: Other Special Guests Terry Tempest Williams. Williams' writing reflects her intimate relationship with the natural world. She has served as naturalist-in-residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History and is currently a Visiting Professor of English at the University of Utah. Her lifelong connection with the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin has shaped her ideas and her many books. Her next book, Leap - a Traveler in the Garden of Delights, is due out in 2000. Jack Tackle. Over the past 25 years, Tackle has pursued all types of climbing, always with an emphasis on alpine-style ascents of new routes. Although he has climbed extensively in the Himalayas and South America, he is best known for his climbing in Alaska, where he has done 23 separate trips since 1976. His plans for 1999 include Patagonia, Alaska and Pakistan. Jack shares his incredible wealth of Alaskan experience in his presentation: Alaska Alpine Style. Wade Davis. A year later, festival-goers are still talking about Davis' spell-binding presentation at the 1998 book festival. An anthropologist and ethnobotanist, he has travelled the world in search of rare plants and indigenous peoples. His degrees, awards, career credits and publications are legion. His many books, including The Clouded Leopard, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and One River, bring his experiences, adventures and insights to the reading audience with his own erudite, informative, eminently readable style. Sid Marty. Marty is a Canadian author, songwriter and mountain bard. He is the award-winning author of Men for the Mountains and won the 1995 Best Book on Mountain Environment and Culture for his book, Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook. His poetry has appeared in various magazines, in anthologies as well as his own books, Headwaters and Nobody Danced with Miss Rodeo. As a singer/songwriter he has played throughout Canada. Marty’s newest book, Mountain Stories, will be out in September, 1999. Ed Douglas. Douglas, a writer, traveller and mountaineer, founded the British rock climbing magazine On the Edge, and the international Mountain Review. He has worked, travelled and climbed in the Alps, Turkey, Mali, India, Kazahkstan and other places around the globe. His 1997 book Chomolungma Sings the Blues received a Special Jury Mention at the 1998 Book Festival. In his new book Regions of the Heart, co-authored with David Rose, he describes the complex and moving story of how Alison Hargreaves came to die on K2 and how she overcame adversity in her life to make a series of outstanding climbs, including the first unsupported ascent of Everest by a woman. Seminars Seminars will be held during the day on Thursday, November 4 and Friday, November 5. Some of this year's topics are: Insights from the Alpine Journals At this year's festival, editors and librarians/custodians of the UK, US and Canadian Alpine Journals will meet as a group for the first time. Together, they represent the longest continuous English-language record of mountaineering achievements. In this discussion, they offer a unique perspective into the direction (past and future) of the English-language alpine journals. The Totem Pole In 1998, on a rock pinnacle in Tasmania, the course of Paul Pritchard’s life was changed forever. Climbing, and writing about climbing, had dictated his whole mode of existence. On that February day, he sustained a terrible head injury that left him with paralysis, speech and memory problems. He has surmounted unbelievable odds and written an inspiring new book about the experience. Patagonia Cowboys Photographer Beth Wald explores the vanishing lifestyle of the gauchos of Patagonia through the perspective and stories of the "Patagonian cowboys" themselves. Footsteps in the Clouds: A Walk Around Kangchenjunga In September, 1899, a team of professional adventurers - including Douglas Freshfield and Vittorio Sella - set out to circumnavigate the massive sacred peak of Kangchenjunga. In 1998, Canmore adventurers Pat and Baiba Morrow retraced the historic journey through Nepal and Sikkim. Their spectacular photographs and the story of circling the world's third highest peak will be published by Raincoast Books in the fall of 1999. The Empty Quarter A legendary expanse of sand desert, the Empty Quarter of Arabia has remained one of the mysterious corners in an ever-shrinking world. Since Sir Wilfred Thesiger left Arabia in 1949, the interior of the Empty Quarter has remained in almost complete isolation. In the spring of 1999, three Canadian adventurers, including Jamie Clarke, retraced Thesiger's first epic crossing. Literary Lunchbreaks These events present a great opportunity for participants to dine with and to hear some favourite writers reading from their work. This year the festival presents Terry Tempest Williams and Sid Marty. Mountain Book Fair, November 3-7 From November 3 – 7, the Mountain Book Fair will feature all the latest titles in mountain literature, maps, archival material and antiquarian books. Famous and soon-to-be-famous mountain authors will be signing books in this location throughout the book and film festivals. A limited number of Early Bird passes and packages are available. To order tickets phone 403-762-6675 or call toll-free 1-800-298-1229. The Banff Mountain Film Festival, Banff Mountain Book Festival and Banff Mountain Photograph Competition are all hosted by The Banff Centre for Mountain Culture which promotes understanding and appreciation of the world's mountain places by creating opportunities for the international mountain community to share experiences, ideas and visions.
Debra Hornsby, Marketing and Communications Manager, The 6th Annual Banff Mountain Book Festival,
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