October 3, 2000

Finalists Announced for 2000 Banff Mountain Book Festival

This year’s finalists in the Banff Mountain Book Festival run the gamut from tragedy to humour, from adventure to reflection. From the high peaks of the Himalaya to the deserts of Arabia, the finalists in the festival’s 7^th annual competition tell stories of courage, passion, inspiration and humour. A pre-screening committee selected 27 finalists from 98 entries from seven countries including Canada, the USA, the UK, Nepal, Germany, South Africa and Italy.

"The strength and variety of this year's entries reflect the growing interest in mountain literature," said Bernadette McDonald, Director of the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture which hosts the event.

The Banff Mountain Book Festival, presented by Canadian Mountain Holidays, runs November 1 – 5, 2000 in conjunction with the Banff Mountain Summit (October 30 and 31, 2000) and the 25th annual Banff Mountain Film Festival (November 3 – 5, 2000).

A number of finalist authors will be featured at the 2000 festivals including Reinhold Messner, Chic Scott, Stephen Venables, Sir Edmund Hillary, Peter and Leni Gillman, and Mike Finkel.

The book festival jury consists of Chris Dafoe, Canada; Susan Golumb, USA; and Bernard Amy, France. Winners of the following awards will be announced at the festival during the evening event of November 2.

The Banff Mountain Book Festival award categories are:

• Grand Prize: Phyllis and Don Munday Award, sponsored by the Alberta Sections of the Alpine Club of Canada: $2000
• Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature, sponsored by The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies: $1000
• Best Book — Mountain Exposition, sponsored by Mountain Lights Bookstore, Lake Louise, Canada: $500
• Best Book — Mountain Image: $500
• Best Book — Adventure Travel, sponsored by Outpost magazine: $500 

The finalists in each category are:

Climbing the World's 14 Highest Mountains — The History of the 8000-meter Peaks, Richard Sale & John Cleare (The Mountaineers Books)
Creagh Dhu Climber: The Life & Times of John Cunningham, Jeff Connor (The Ernest Press)
El Capitan, Daniel Duane (Chronicle Books)
Extreme Rock & Ice, Garth Hattingh (New Holland Publishing (South Africa)
Life and Death on Mt. Everest, Sherry Ortner (Princeton University Press)
My Quest for Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas' Deepest Mystery, Reinhold Messner (St. Martin's Press)
Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire, Nicholas Howe (Appalachian Mountain Club Books)
Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering, Chic Scott (Rocky Mountain Books)
A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya, Stephen Venables (Random House UK)
Stone Palaces, Geof Childs (The Mountaineers Books)
True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna, David Roberts (Simon & Schuster)
Two for the Summit: My Daughter, the Mountains and Me, Geoffrey Norman (Dutton)
View from the Summit, Edmund Hillary (Transworld Publishers)
Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood, Orville Schell (Henry Holt and Company, Inc.)
The Wildest Dream: the Biography of George Mallory, Peter & Leni Gillman (The Mountaineers Books)

The Complete Climber's Handbook, Jerry Cinnamon (Ragged Mountain Press)
Guide to Climbing Photography, Jeff Achey (Stackpole Books)
A Hiker's Guide to the Rocky Mountain Art of Lawren Harris, Lisa Christensen (Fifth House Ltd.)

Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography, Antony Decaneas (The Mountaineers Books)
Chasms of Silence, Marten Berkman (Folio Gallery for Waterous & Co.)
Denali: Reflections of a Naturalist, Kennan Ward (Creative Publishing, Intl.)
Millenium 2000 #2, Betta Gobbi (Vivalda Editori SRI.)

Along the Inca Road, Karin Muller (National Geographic Society)
Alpine Circus, Michael Finkel (Lyons Press)
National Geographic Expeditions Atlas, Tom Melham (National Geographic Society)
Patagonia: Notes from the Field, Nora Gallagher (Chronicle Books)
Sand Dance: By Camel Across Arabia's Great Southern Desert, Bruce Kirkby (McClelland & Stewart)

• Mick Fowler: Alpine Style from Chalk to the Himalaya
• Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Lynn Hill, Peter Croft, Leo Houlding, Todd Skinner:
  Five Decades of Yosemite
• Dr. Thomas Hornbein: Sunrises and Sunsets
• Brad Washburn: Reminiscences: McKinley, Matterhorn, Everest
• Chic Scott: Pushing the Limits: the Story of Canadian Mountaineering
• Ian Mitchell and Jack Law: Scotland's Mountains Before the Mountaineers
• Carsten Peter: Photographing Volcanoes
• Literary Lunchbreaks will feature Sid Marty: Switchbacks: True Stories form the Canadian Rockies and Mike Finkel: Alpine Circus

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Debra Hornsby, Marketing and Communications Manager,
  Mountain Culture, The Banff Centre
phone: 403-762-6446, fax: 403-762-6277,
email: debra_hornsby@banffcentre.ca
Web site: www.banffmountainfestivals.ca

The 7th Annual Banff Mountain Book Festival is presented by Canadian Mountain Holiday and Eagle Creek Travel Gear and sponsored by The National Geographic Society, Patagonia, Dunham Bootmakers and MountainZone.com with assistance from: The Alpine Club of Canada, The Banff Book & Art Den, The Mountaineers Books and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.