Banff Mountain Book Festival 2006
November 1 – 3
2006 Book Competition Winners
The Banff Mountain Book Festival thanks the writers, the photographers, their editors and publishers for entering this year’s competition. We received 113 entries from nine countries, and a dedicated committee had a very tough job to narrow the field down to 29 finalists. » Read the press release announcing the winners.
Grand Prize The Wall, by Jeff Long. Phyllis and Don Munday Award, sponsored by the Alberta Sections of the Alpine Club of Canada: $2000 plus glass sculpture
Best Book — Mountain Literature The Climbing Essays, by Jim Perrin. Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature, sponsored by the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff: $1000 plus glass sculpture
Best Book — Mountain Image World Climbing: Images from the Edge, by Simon Carter. Sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books, Calgary: $500 plus glass sculpture
Best Book — Mountain Exposition Burbage, Millstone and Beyond, by David Simmonite, editor; Niall Grimes, series editor. Sponsored by GORE-TEX® products: $500 plus glass sculpture
Best Book — Adventure Travel Eating Stone, by Ellen Meloy. Sponsored by Batstar Adventure Tours, Port Alberni, B.C.: $500 plus glass sculpture
Best Book — Mountaineering History Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance 1935 — The Forgotten Adventure, by Tony Astill. James Monroe Thorington Award for the Best Work of Mountaineering History, sponsored by UIAA: $500 plus glass sculpture
Special Jury Mention Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness, by Geoff Powter
Canadian Rockies Award Powder Pioneers: Ski Stories from the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains, by Chic Scott. Sponsored by Deuter and selected by a local committee: Deuter Pack
| Grand Prize | |
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The Wall Simon & Schuster 0-7432-6616-1 “The lean, vivid, sometimes hallucinatory prose of Long’s big-wall thriller grabs readers by the harness from the opening scene and draws them relentlessly into the mind of an aging rock rat trying to out-climb a mysterious past,” says competition jury member David Leach, a Victoria, B.C.-based adventure writer and professor. Long was a guest speaker at the Book Festival. |
| Best Book — Mountain Literature | |
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The Climbing Essays Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd 1-903238-47-1 “Climbing has given Perrin his life,” says jury member Audrey Salkeld, a U.K.-based journalist and mountaineering historian. “And practice has polished his natural gift in conveying these irreconcilables onto paper.” Perrin was a recipient of the 2006 Paul D Fleck Fellowship in the Arts from The Banff Centre. |
| Best Book — Mountain Image | |
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World Climbing: Images from the Edge Onsight Photography 097576621X “Carter consistently dodges the clichés of climbing photography and captures with unsettling intimacy moments of truth and beauty on the great walls of the world,” jury member David Leach says. Carter was a guest speaker at the Book Festival. |
| Best Book — Mountain Exposition | |
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Burbage, Millstone and Beyond BMC 0-903908-77-8 An accessible but detailed mix of history, first-ascent lore, lists of bouldering problems, maps, and photography. Jury member Audrey Salkeld says the book “seems to have learned all the lessons of what constitutes a good and easily accessible guide.” |
| Best Book — Adventure Travel | |
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Eating Stone Pantheon Books 0-375-42216-1 “I can’t think of more lyrical, more quirky, or more meditative writing about wilderness and loss than Eating Stone,” says jury member David Stevenson, a writing professor at Western Illinois University and review editor of the American Alpine Journal. |
| Best Book — Mountaineering History | |
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Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance 1935 — The Forgotten Adventure Tony Astill 0-9549201-0-4 A complex account of the fifth recorded attempt to summit Everest, the book follows alpinists Eric Shipton, Dan Bryant, and Tensing Norgay as they explore 26 Himalayan peaks, map the Everest North Face, and discover the body of previous summit attempter Maurice Wilson. “Astill is to be commended for giving us such a luxurious and nostalgic work,” Salkeld says. |
| Special Jury Mention | |
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Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness The Mountaineers Books 0-89886-987-0 Powter retells the rise and fall of a rogue’s gallery of misadventurers—some still infamous, others long forgotten—with the casual aplomb of a barstool raconteur. As their tales come to life, though, the author complicates our vision of these outdoor obsessives with psychological insights into their characters and the very nature of adventure. Powter was a guest speaker at the Book Festival. |
| Canadian Rockies Award | |
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Powder Pioneers: Ski Stories from the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains Rocky Mountain Books 1-894765-64-8 Local writer and historian is one of the foremost chroniclers of the history and character of the Rocky Mountains. The Canadian Rockies award is chosen by a local committee. Scott was awarded the Summit of Excellence Award by Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre in 2000. |