Media Release

October 31, 2008

2008 Banff Mountain Book Festival finalists feature tales of adventure, survival, exploration

Banff Mountain Book Festival
November 5 to 7
The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada
Information: 403.762.6675, Tickets: 800.413.8368

Riveting accounts of adventurous achievements, survival and exploration at the ends of the earth, trekking tales, mountain memoirs, and conservation and science stories are vying for the top prizes at the 2008 Banff Mountain Book Festival, set to begin on November 5. Among the finalists, Andy Cave charts his struggles with losing a friend and climbing partner on the north face of Changabang in the Himalayas with Thin White Line, Wade Davis illustrates the challenge of watershed restoration in a photographic journey with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon: River at Risk, while Explorers of the Infinite: The Secret Spiritual Lives of Extreme Athletes by Maria Coffey examines how risk-taking pushes athletes into new realms of consciousness.

In its 15th year, the Book Festival received 113 entries from 14 countries. Among the 32 finalists in five categories, six of the authors are past participants in The Banff Centre’s Mountain Writing Program. Along with Cave and Coffey, they include Colin Wells whose book Who’s Who in British Climbing is a humourous and personal set of mini-biographies. Andy Kirkpatrick’s Psychovertical features stories from his inner-city childhood and his achievements in mountaineering. Jon Bowermaster wrote Descending the Dragon, about his 800-mile sea kayak expedition along Vietnam’s northern coast. Jennifer Lowe-Anker wrote Forget Me Not: A Memoir — a portrait of her husband Alex Lowe, who died in an avalanche on Tibet’s Shishapangma, through to her eventual marriage to his climbing partner who survived the slide, Conrad Anker.

Coffey and Lowe-Anker will be featured guest speakers at the 2008 Banff Mountain Book Festival, as will Sid Marty, a finalist for his book The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek, about a series bear attacks that occurred near the town of Banff in the summer of 1980, and the lessons learned from the experience. Bernadette McDonald traces the life of Tomaz Humar in a biography of the controversial mountaineer, Majka Burhardt presents a climbing expedition to the sandstone spires of northern Ethiopia in Vertical Ethiopia, and Lynn Martel outlines her collection of 59 stories from Expeditions to the Edge: Stories of Worldwide Adventure. Robert Birkby will read from his book Mountain Madness: Scott Fischer, Mount Everest and a Life Lived on High.

The 2008 jury consists of Julie Tait (U.K.), John Harlin III (U.S.), and David Chaundy-Smart (Canada). The winners of the following awards will be announced on the evening of Thursday, November 6 in the Eric Harvie Theatre:

• 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 Yamnuska Mountain Adventures: $500
  
• Best Book — Adventure Travel, sponsored by Batstar Adventure Tours: $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 more information and a full schedule of 2008 Banff Mountain Festivals events:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/festivals/2008/

The Banff Mountain Book Festival is presented by CMH and National Geographic, and sponsored by New Balance, Patagonia, Deuter, OR, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and Gore-tex, with support from the Alpine Club of Canada,The Mountaineers Books, Rocky Mountain Books, CBC Radio-Canada, Calgary Herald, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.