Forever on the Mountain, James M. Tabor’s tale of the mysterious fate of a group of expert climbers who disappeared on Mount McKinley in 1967, was awarded the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize. The Phyllis and Don Munday Award, sponsored by the Alberta sections of the Alpine Club of Canada, comes with a $2,000 cash prize.
Tabor’s meticulously researched book tells the story of a 12-man expedition led by Joe Wilcox. Five of the team returned, while seven remained trapped near the summit by one of the worst storms ever to hit the area. Ten days passed without a rescue attempt, and all seven men died. “The era of mountaineering Tabor describes — just a generation ago — is so different from today’s light and fast style, that it’s almost impossible to imagine ourselves back there,” says Book Festival jury member Dougald MacDonald. “This book helps us understand what it was like.”
Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind one of Mountaineering’s Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters (W.W. Norton & Company, USA, 2007) was among 26 finalists in five categories.
Stephen Venables’s autobiography Higher Than the Eagle Soars (Random House U.K., 2007) won the prize for Best Book in the Mountain Literature category, sponsored by the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. The book follows Venables from childhood through previously unpublished alpine journeys, including an epic climb on Everest’s Kangshung Face. Jury member Will Gadd praises the book for its sheer sense of fun. “Should be remedial reading for every tortured alpinist wrestling with angst,” he says.
Glen Denny’s remarkable book of historical photos Yosemite in the Sixties (T. Adler Books, USA 2007) was awarded the prize for Best Book — Mountain Image, sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books and the Banff Book and Art Den. A tribute to the golden years of climbing in Yosemite, MacDonald describes the book as “packed with previously unpublished yet beautiful photos.” The award for Best Book — Mountain Exposition, sponsored by Yamnuska Mountain Adventures, went to Mike Robertson’s Deep Water (Rockfax, U.K., 2007), a guide to the emerging climbing genre of deep-water soloing. Jury member Ed Douglas commends it as “an awful lot of fun.”
Allen Smutylo’s Wild Places Wild Hearts: Nomads of the Himalaya (Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Canada, 2007) took home the award for Best Book — Adventure Travel, sponsored by Batstar Adventure Tours. It’s a beautiful collection of artwork from Smutylo’s travels through Ladakh. “This book has eerie and moving art, engaging writing, and ultimately delivers the best thing an adventure travel book can — a sense of place.”
John Harlin III was awarded the John Monroe Thorington Award for Best Book on Mountaineering History, sponsored by the Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme. His emotional memoir The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father (Simon & Schuster, USA, 2007), traces Harlin’s return to the Alps, 40 years after his father’s fatal climbing accident. “A judicious and moving assessment of a famous father and his son’s journey from beneath his shadow,” Douglas says of the book.
The Canadian Rockies Award, sponsored by Deuter and selected by a local committee, was awarded to Alberta climber, alpinist, photographer, and artist Glen Boles. His book Glen Boles: My Mountain Album (Rocky Mountain Books, Canada, 2006), is a spectacular photographic account of a life spent exploring the Rockies.
The jury awarded a special mention to Lincoln Hall’s Dead Lucky (Random House, Australia, 2007). A writer, editor, and mountaineer, Hall’s climbing partners on Everest in 2006, thinking he was dead, left him on the mountain for a night. The next morning, another expedition team found him alive. This is the story of his time on Everest, and the aftermath of this remarkable incident.
The Banff Mountain Book Festival, held at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada, is the largest mountain book festival in the world. Each year, the festival brings the spirit of outdoor adventure and the tradition of mountain literature to Banff, featuring guest speakers, readings, seminars, an international book competition, a book fair, and book signings and launches. This year, the 14th annual Festival (October 31 to November 2) welcomed authors, athletes, artists, and photographers including David de Rothschild, John Harlin III, James Tabor, Ed Viesturs, Dick Dorworth, Bernadette McDonald, Steph Davis, John Earle, and Mike Libecki.
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More information on the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival.
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475
The Banff Mountain Book Festival is presented by Canadian Mountain Holidays and National Geographic, and sponsored by New Balance, Patagonia, Deuter, Outdoor Research, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and Gore-Tex, with support from the Alpine Club of Canada, Banff Book & Art Den, The Mountaineers Books, Rocky Mountain Books, Banff Lake Louise Tourism, CBC Radio One, Calgary Herald, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
