Media Release | September 10, 2025 | Banff, AB
The 50th anniversary Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is delighted to announce that world-renowned ice core scientist, glaciologist, advocate for gender equity, mother, and high-altitude mountaineer, Dr. Alison Criscitiello is the recipient of the 2025 Summit of Excellence Award.
The 2025 Summit of Excellence Award is sponsored by Norseman Outdoor Specialist and the Town of Cochrane. The Award celebrates long-term contributions, service, and demonstrated impact within the mountain culture community in Canada by an individual or group from across the country, and will be presented during the Festival on Saturday, November 1, 7:30 p.m in the Jenny Belzberg Theatre at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Dr. Alison Criscitiello is a world-renowned ice core scientist, glaciologist, advocate for gender equity, mother, and high-altitude mountaineer. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta, co-founder of Girls* on Ice Canada – and received the first PhD in glaciology ever conferred by MIT.
As a scientist, her work has taken her to ice caps around the world including Antarctica, Greenland, and the Canadian High Arctic not to mention the summit of Canada’s highest peak, Mount Logan. Criscitiello explores the history of climate and glaciers in polar and high-alpine regions by tracking environmental contaminant histories using ice core chemistry. Many of the glaciers she has visited are at extreme risk due to climate change and Criscitiello is at the forefront of data capture and documentation of ice loss in these volatile zones.
Criscitiello’s expedition to collect ice core samples from close to the summit of Mount Logan was groundbreaking (and back-breaking) work. While polar ice coring science has been around for half a century, no one had conducted such an extensive collection from such a high altitude. Alongside her academic and scientific accolades, she is also an exceptional storyteller whose work has appeared in high-impact film projects, print, television, and her article Contraindications won a Banff Mountain Book Competition award in 2018.
Criscitiello is committed to making science more accessible to young women as well. As a founder of the Girls* on Ice Canada program, Criscitiello hopes to merge science, art, and adventure to inspire leadership, curiosity, and confidence in the next generation of leaders. Her work has motivated a community of young women to pursue their interests in science and dive into their passions in the outdoors.
In 2021, she was elected to the Royal Canadian Geographic Society’s College of Fellows and she is Fellow International with The Explorer’s Club. She was recently awarded a Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for her significant contributions to Arctic climate research. She has been the recipient of three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, The John Lauchlan Award, and the Mugs Stump alpine climbing award.
Join Criscitiello live at the 2025 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival’s Fire and Ice Symposium morning session: Ice (Tuesday, November 4, 9 a.m.). This panel will explore the importance of women in glaciology and how speakers are lifting up the next generation of girls and women to enter these fields and contribute to climate research. Panelists Alison Criscitiello, Jocelyn Hirose, and Corinne Schuster-Wallace will explore the role that storytelling, art, and communication play in the programs they founded and continue to champion.
Presented by Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival since 1987, the annual Summit of Excellence Award is presented in memory of Calgary climber Bill March, an internationally respected mountaineer, author, and educator, who led Canada’s first successful Everest climb in 1982. Recent award recipients include Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison (2024), Andy Genereux (2023), Grant Statham (2022), Helen Sovdat (2021), Raphael Slawinski (2020), David Smart (2019), Jacques Olek (2018), Don Serl (2017), David P. Jones (2016), Pierre Lemire (2015), Urs Kallen (2014), Ben Gadd (2013), and Geoff Powter (2012).
This year’s 50th anniversary Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival (November 1-9) 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!
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).
