John Porter’s One Day as a Tiger wins 2014 Banff Mountain Book Competition Grand Prize

Banff, Alberta, November 5, 2014 -- In the autumn of 1982, a single stone fell from high on the south face of Annapurna and struck Alex MacIntyre on the head, killing him instantly and robbing the climbing world of one of its greatest talents. John Porter’s revealing and poignant memoir of his friend and one of Britain’s most accomplished mountaineers, Alex MacIntyre, shows mountaineering at its extraordinary best and tragic worst. It draws an unforgettable picture of the dazzling, argumentative, and exuberant legend. One Day as a Tiger (Vertebrate Publishing  UK, 2014), has been awarded the Grand Prize at the 2014 Banff Mountain Book Competition.    

Chosen by an international jury from a shortlist of six finalists, the book is described as presenting “some of the most gripping and poignant climbing writing in recent memory.” John Porter is a 2013 alumnus of The Banff Centre's Literary Arts Mountain and Wilderness Writing program.  

“One Day as a Tiger thus gets at truths that very few biographies of mountaineers have touched,” said jury member David Roberts. "John Porter has taken a huge risk in this biography of his onetime partner and best friend, Alex MacIntyre, by unfolding the short life of a visionary climber through the unusual vehicle of a dual memoir—half MacIntyre, half Porter.  The chance to use MacIntyre’s story as a pretext for recounting his own adventures in the mountains is a temptation that Porter not only sidesteps, but transmutes into something rare and new.”

The 2014 jury included Netherlands-based journalist, writer, and editor Anik See, US author and mountaineer David Roberts and UK journalist and author Ed Douglas.

Winners in the Banff Mountain Book Competition individual categories, included:   

Mountain Image Award: Vulkane: Expeditionen zu den gefährlichsten Kratern der Welt by Carsten Peter (National Geographic /NG Malik Buchgesellschaft, Germany, 2013).

Mountain and Wilderness Literature – Nonfiction (The Jon Whyte Award): The Homeward Wolf  by Kevin Van Tighem (Rocky Mountain Books Canada, 2013).

Guidebook Award:  Simple Fly Fishing: Techniques for Tenkara and Rod & Reel by Yvon Chouinard, Craig Mathews, Mauro Mazzo (Patagonia Books USA, 2014).

Adventure Travel Award: Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux (McClelland & Stewart Canada, 2013).

Mountain Fiction and Poetry Award: Letters from Chamonix by David Stevenson (Imaginary Mountain Surveyors, Canada, 2014).

Mountaineering History (The James Monroe Thorington Award): One Day as a Tiger: Alex MacIntyre and the Birth of Light and Fast Alpinism by John Porter (Vertebrate Publishing UK, 2014).

Special Jury Mention: The Oil Man and the Sea: Navigating the Northern Gateway by Arno Kopecky, (Douglas & McIntyre, Canada 2013).

Created 39 years ago, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world. The Festival showcases the world’s best films, books and photographs on mountain subjects – climbing, culture, environment and natural history, exploration and adventure, wildlife, and sport – and attracts the biggest names in mountaineering, adventure filmmaking, and extreme sports as presenters and speakers. More than 80 films will screen during the nine-day festival, and an international jury will award over $50,000 in prizes.  

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