The Banff Centre media roomThe Banff Centre media room

Media Release

For immediate release
October 19, 2006

2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival finalists travel the world for the best in adventure nonfiction, literature, and photography

The finalist books in this year’s Banff Mountain Book Festival competition circle the globe, bringing back stories of the best in mountain adventure, photography, literature, and travel. Among the finalists are Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado’s visceral memoir of survival after a 1972 plane crash, David Zurick’s lush and comprehensive Illustrated Atlas of the Himalayas, and The Last Season, Eric Blehm’s haunting chronicle of the life and disappearance of James Morgenson, an eccentric and dedicated forest ranger in California’s Sierra Nevada.

Among 29 finalists in five categories chosen from 113 entries, this year’s competition also includes The Last Place on Earth, photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols’s landmark work that takes viewers into the remote and mysterious rainforests of Congo and Gabon with ecologist Mike Fay. Bruce Kirkby’s The Dolphin’s Tooth is a memoir about quitting work at the age of 22 and heading off with no experience to cycle the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan. National Geographic photographer Gordon Wiltsie’s To the Ends of the Earth is a finely illustrated expedition diary and memoir, chronicling the life of a modern-day explorer.

Parrado, Wiltsie and many of the other finalists will be featured guests at the Banff Mountain Book Festival, November 1 to 3 at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Other finalists who will be speaking at the Festival include:

  • Greg Mortenson, whose memoir Three Cups of Tea is the story of his remarkable commitment to the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan, for whom he has built dozens of schools following an unsuccessful attempt to summit K2.
  • Novelist Jeff Long, who will read from his third thriller set in the climbing world. The Wall is about two climbing partners revisiting Yosemite’s El Capitan 35 years after they first attempted it, chased by obsession, love, loss, and mystery.
  • Clint Willis, author of The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation, the complicated story of a tight-knit group of alpinists who changed the face of high-altitude mountaineering in the three decades after the first successful ascent of Everest.
  • Geoff Powter, who will read from his new work of nonfiction, Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness, examining the fine line between an adventurous soul and an unsound mind through 11 tales of troubled expeditions.
  • Simon Carter, who will present the story behind World Climbing: Images from the Edge. A remarkable photographic odyssey, the book contains superlative photos, recognizable as works of art in any photographic context. As its title asserts, this is a look at the cutting edge of world climbing and the folk who are keeping that edge razor-keen. An exhibition of Carter’s work will be on display.
  • Kathryn Bridge, whose book A Passion for Mountains tells the story of western Canada’s best-known mountaineering couple, Don and Phyllis Munday.
  • U.K.-based author and biographer Jim Perrin, who returns to Banff with The Climbing Essays, a collection of 40 years of writing on the sport. Perrin received one of The Banff Centre’s Paul D. Fleck Fellowships in the Arts for 2006.

Banff Mountain Book Festival jury members David Leach (Canada), Audrey Salkeld (UK), and David Stevenson (USA) will announce the winners of the following awards, which will be presented during the Book Festival on Thursday, November 2.

  • 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, Banff: $1000
  • Best Book — Mountain Image, sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books, Calgary: $500
  • Best Book — Mountain Exposition, sponsored By Gore-Tex®: $500
  • Best Book — Adventure Travel, sponsored by Batstar Adventure Tours, Port Alberni, B.C.: $500
  • Best Book — Mountaineering History, James Monroe Thorington Award for the best work of mountaineering history, sponsored By UIAA: $500

In addition, a local committee will select the winner of the Canadian Rockies Award, sponsored by Deuter.

For tickets to the 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival, contact the Banff Centre Box Office at 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301.

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Complete list of 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival finalists.

Full schedule of the 2006 Banff Mountain Book and Film Festivals.

Images of selected speakers.

Media contact and access to high-resolution photos:
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475

The 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival is presented by Canadian Mountain Holidays and National Geographic. The Book Festival is sponsored by Dunham, Patagonia, Deuter, OR, and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, with the support of the Alpine Club of Canada, Banff Book and Art Den, The Mountaineers Books, CBC Radio-Canada, The Calgary Herald and Alberta Foundation for the Arts.