Media Release
For immediate
release
October 25, 2005
2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival finalists cover the best in outdoor and adventure writing and photography
Banff Mountain Book Festival – November 2 to 4
Tickets: 403-762-6301 or 1-800-413-8368
Engaging real-life stories are everywhere on the finalists’ list at this year’s Banff Mountain Book Festival. Among the 39 finalists are Jeffrey Taylor’s journal of hair-raising travel through the Sahara borderlands, a memoir by the British high altitude mountaineer Mick Fowler, and a detailed biography of iconoclastic British climber Don Whillans by Jim Perrin.
Finalists also include The Golden Spruce, John Vaillant’s Governor General’s Award-nominated chronicle of eco-sabotage on the Queen Charlotte Islands; David Roberts’ acclaimed autobiography of an adventuring life, On the Ridge Between Life and Death; and The Heart of the World by Ian Baker, a journey “off the map” in Tibet.
Several of this year’s finalist authors, including Roberts and Perrin, will be featured guests at the book festival, November 2 to 4, at The Banff Centre. Other finalist authors at the festival include:
- Karsten Heuer, author of Being Caribou, the story of his 1,500-kilometre 2003 trek north from Old Crow in the Yukon to the arctic caribou’s traditional calving grounds, now under immediate threat from oil drilling interests. Heuer, a guest at the 2004 Banff Mountain Film Festival with his filmmaker wife, Leanne Allison (they presented the film version of Being Caribou), will enthrall the Book Festival audience on Wednesday, November 2
- Arlene Blum, high-altitude mountaineer and research chemist, with her memoir Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life
- Helen Thayer, veteran of desert and arctic adventures and author of Three Among the Wolves
- Jennifer Jordan, whose book Savage Summit tells the story of the first five women to summit K2
- Andy Cave, whose memoir Learning to Breathe is about his lifelong journey from a job in the coal mines of northern England to a career as a mountaineer.
- Graham Forbes, who combines his lives as guitarist and climber into Rock and Roll Mountains
- Richard Sale, who re-examines a 1957 first ascent in Broad Peak
The 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival received more than 150 entries from eight countries. Readers narrowed the entries down to 39 finalists, and jury members Bill Buxton (Canada), Jeremy Schmidt (USA), and Maggie Body (UK) will select the winners of the following awards to be announced at the Book Festival on Thursday, November 3:
- Grand Prize: Phyllis and Don Munday Award, sponsored by the Alberta Sections of the Alpine Club of Canada: $2000
- Best Book — Mountain Literature: Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature, sponsored by the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies: $1000
- Best Book — Mountain Exposition: sponsored by Dunham: $500
- Best Book — Mountain Image: sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books: $500
- Best Book — Adventure Travel: sponsored by Batstar Adventure Tours: $500
- Best Book — Mountaineering History: James Monroe Thorington Award for the best recent work of Mountaineering History: sponsored by the UIAA: $500
- Canadian Rockies Award: sponsored by Deuter and selected by a local committee
For tickets to the 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival, call The Banff Centre Box Office at 403-762-6301 or 1-800-413-8368, or online.
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Complete list of finalists for the 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival.
Full schedule of 2005
Banff Mountain Festivals events.
Images of authors and guest speakers.
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475
The 12th annual Banff Mountain Book Festival is presented by Canadian Mountain Holidays and National Geographic, sponsored by Dunham, Patagonia, MSR — Mountain Safety Research, Deuter, OR — Outdoor Research, and Timex Expedition, with assistance from the Alpine Club of Canada, the Banff Book & Art Den, The Mountaineers Books, CBC — Radio Canada, the Calgary Herald, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
