2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition category finalists announced

Media Release | September 18, 2025 | Banff, AB

The 50th anniversary Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is thrilled to announce the 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition category finalists.

As a key program of Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Book Competition is an internationally recognized literary competition that celebrates mountain literature in all its forms. $29,000 in cash is awarded annually with eight awards: Mountain Literature (non-fiction), Mountain Fiction and Poetry, Environmental Literature, Adventure Travel, Mountain Image, Guidebooks, Mountain Article, Climbing Literature, plus the Grand Prize selected by an international jury of writers, adventurers, and editors.

The prescreening committee read 142 submissions from authors in 11 countries, which were narrowed down to a longlist of 29 category finalists.

The shortlist of category award winners eligible for the Grand Prize will be announced on October 16, 2025. The Grand Prize will be announced during the festival on Thursday November 6, 2025. The 2025 Book Competition jury members are David Chambre (France), Paul Scully (UK), and Kate Neville (Canada).

Category finalists are listed alphabetically by title in each award category.

Mountain Literature (non-fiction) – The Jon Whyte Award 
$3000 – Sponsored by The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Across the Himalaya
Vineeta Muni, Neemtree Tech Labs Pvt Ltd (India, 2025)

Enough: Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest
Melissa Arnot Reid, The Crown Publishing Group (USA, 2025)

Human Nature: A Walking History of the Himalayan Landscape
Thomas Bell, Penguin Random House India (India, 2024)

Moving the Needle
Dave MacLeod, Rare Breed Productions (UK, 2024)

Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali
Cassidy Randall, Abrams (USA, 2025)

Mountain Fiction & Poetry
$3000 – Sponsored by the Town of Banff

5.7 | Haikus for the Climber 
Mike Brown, Boreal Forest Books (Canada, 2024)

An Abundance of Wild Roses
Feryal Ali-Gauhar, Canongate (UK, 2024)

The Empty Rope
Dunstan Power, Black Pear Press Limited (UK, 2024)

Environmental Literature
$3000 – Sponsored by Rab

A Woman Among Wolves
Diane K. Boyd, Greystone Books (Canada, 2024)

Is a River Alive?
Robert Macfarlane, W. W. Norton & Company (USA, 2025)

Latitudes: Encounters with a Changing Planet
Jean McNeil, Barbican Press (UK, 2025)

The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light
Craig Childs, Torrey House Press (USA, 2025)

Travels Up the Creek: A Biologist's Search for a Paddle
Lorne Fitch, Rocky Mountain Books (Canada, 2024)

Adventure Travel
$3000 – Sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books

Eventually a Sequoia
Jeremy Collins, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2025)

Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis
Jon Waterman, Patagonia Books (USA, 2024)

Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue
Buddy Levy, St. Martin's Press (USA, 2025)

River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing
Steve Duda, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2024)

Mountain Image
$3000 – Sponsored by Mountain Life

All Humans Outside: Stories of Belonging in Nature
Tommy Corey, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2025)

Eden: A Portrait of Mountain Biking in Aotearoa New Zealand
Nick Stevenson, Thames & Hudson Australia (Aotearoa New Zealand, 2025)

Patagonia National Park: Chile
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, Michelle Bachelet & Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia Books (USA, 2024)

Guidebooks
$3000 – Sponsored by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides

Boulder Canyon Rock Climbs
Topher Donahue, Wolverine Publishing (USA, 2024)

Northern Horizons
Will Herman, Scottish Mountaineering Press (UK, 2025)

Soča from Source to Sea - Paddling Guidebook
Rok Rozman, Leeway Collective (Slovenia, 2024)

Southern Faces: An Introduction to Rock Climbing in Ōtepoti Dunedin
Riley Smith, WildLab (New Zealand, 2025)

Mountain Article
$3000 – Sponsored by The Lodge at Bow Lake

Behind the Curtain
Corey Buhay, Summit Journal (USA, 2025)

Fleet-Winged Ghosts of Greenland
Carolien Van Hemert, Hakai Magazine/BioGraphic (USA, 2024)

In the Shadow of the Mountain 
Natalie Berry, The Fence (UK, 2024)

Something Lost Behind the Ranges
Michael Wejchert, Summit Journal (USA, 2025)

Writing Like a Mountain: Climbing Literature in the Anthropocene
Katie Ives, The Himalayan Journal (India, 2024)

Climbing Literature
$3000 – Sponsored by NOLS
Books with a primary focus on climbing from the categories above are eligible for this award. The winner will be announced October 16, 2025.

Grand Prize 
$5000 – Sponsored by The Alpine Club of Canada 
The shortlist of category award winners eligible for the Grand Prize will be announced October 16, 2025. The Grand Prize will be announced during the Festival on Thursday November 6, 2025.
 

This year’s 50th anniversary Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival (November 1-9), held by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta, will welcome adventurers, filmmakers, authors, and photographers from around the world for an exceptional lineup featuring over 80 epic films (including World and North American premieres), plus a special Fire and Ice Symposium (November 4-5), the bustling Festival Marketplace, free talks on the Rab Stage, happy hours with live music, downtown events, exhibitions, and much more!

Don't miss our popular daytime book events, featuring authors, photographers, and explorers from around the world, including Hamish Frost, Guy Robertson, Sonnie Trotter, Joanna Croston, Hazel Findlay, Lynn Hill, Lydia Bradey, Sarah Hueniken, Brette Harrington, Sharon Wood, Tom Bell, Jean McNeil, Jeremy Collins, Cassidy Randall, Greg Hill, and Craig Childs.

The Festival schedule is available to view online. Tickets and passes can be purchased at banffmountainfestival.ca or Banff Centre Box Office.

Film competition finalists will be announced October 2.

Online films will be available following the Festival from November 12-23, 2025 (available in CAN/USA only).

2025 Banff Mountain Photo Essay Competition Grand Prize winner

Showcasing the best in mountain-themed photo essays – and to recognize outstanding stories told through a series of up to five still images – the 2025 Banff Mountain Photo Essay Competition Grand Prize winner is Javier Arcenillas (Spain) for his series of photos The Silent Death Mine.

The Grand Prize will be presented during the Festival on Saturday, November 8.

“These photographs were chosen for this stage because of their powerful reality. They ask us to pause, reflect, and recognize how our changing world is deeply connected to these unseen struggles.”
– Irene Yee, Juror

We would also like to recognize a Special Jury Mention: Niklas Virsen for the essay Arctic Fox.

The 2025 international jury includes Irene Yee (USA), Hamish Frost (UK), and Mason Mashon (Canada).

Sponsored by Nikon and Fjällräven.

If you’d like to provide media coverage of the 2025 Festival, please submit a media accreditation application form (submissions open until October 1).

For more information or image requests, please contact: 
Jess Elliott
Media and Communications, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Box 1020,107 Tunnel Mountain Drive
Banff, Alberta
Canada T1L 1H5  
jess_elliott@banffcentre.ca 

About Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival: Created 50 years ago, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world. The nine-day Festival hosted by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada, 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 explorers as presenters and speakers. An international jury will also award over $40,000 in prizes for films and books submitted to this year’s Festival competitions. banffmountainfestival.ca    

Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival Partners: The 2025 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival Presenting Sponsors are Rab and Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. The Festival is also supported by YETI, Oboz Footwear, World Expeditions, The Lake Louise Ski Resort, Grangers, SLY Foods, Duer, Alpine Club of Canada, Arc’teryx, Durston, Wild Life Distillery, Wild Rose Brewery, and KORE.

About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity: Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a post-secondary institution built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and leadership development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creative decision-making across dozens of disciplines. From our home on Treaty 7 territory in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to move everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, thinkers, and audiences – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to build an innovative, inspiring future through education, performances, convenings, and public outreach. banffcentre.ca