The Boardman Tasker Prize Short List 2018

One of the most prestigious prizes for Mountain Literature - The Boardman Tasker Prize has announced the short list for 2018. As usual the competition for the winner will be fierce and all the books here are worthy of mention.

The shortlisted books are below. For more information do visit  http://www.boardmantasker.com/news/2018/8/29/2018-boardman-tasker-award-for-mountain-literature-shortlist-announced

NICK BULLOCK

 

TIDES: A CLIMBER’S VOYAGE

Vertebrate Publishing

An enlightening memoir by an accomplished writer and climber that provides a window into the nature of extreme climbing now and over the past thirty years.

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PAOLO COGNETTI

THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS

Harvill Secker

A widely praised novel by an Italian author that details the intriguing friendship between a mountain cow herder and a city boy from Milan, played out over three decades in the Dolomites.

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ED DOUGLAS AND JOHN BEATTY

KINDER SCOUT: THE PEOPLE’S MOUNTAIN

Vertebrate Publishing

An evocative celebration of a much-loved mountain, presented by a partnership between two of Britain’s finest mountain writers and photographers.

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CHRISTOPH RANSMAYR

THE FLYING MOUNTAIN

Seagull Books

A second work of fiction, audaciously told in blank verse by Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr, that follows the journey of two brothers from southwest Ireland as they pursue a quest for an unnamed mountain in Tibet.

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DAVID ROBERTS

LIMITS OF THE KNOWN

W.W.Norton & Sons

An enthralling examination – part history, part memoir – of the motivations of mountaineers and other explorers, related by veteran US author and climber David Roberts.

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DOUG SCOTT

THE OGRE: BIOGRAPHY OF A MOUNTAIN AND THE DRAMATIC STORY OF THE FIRST ASCENT

Vertebrate Publishing

The long awaited full account of the epic accident and rescue on the Ogre in the Karakorum in 1977, together with an enlightening history of the exploration of the mountain.

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JUNKO TABEI AND HELEN Y. ROLFE

HONOURING HIGH PLACES: THE MOUNTAIN LIFE OF JUNKO TABEI

Rocky Mountain Books

A revealing biography of the life of the first woman to climb both Mount Everest and the Seven Summits, based on her memoirs and completed by Canadian writer Helen Rolfe.

Everest South West Face | Forty Years since the First Ascent

Dougal Haston on the south west face of Everest 1975

On September 24th 1975 two climbers from Britain, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston reached the summit of Everest by the unclimbed South West Face after a bivouac near the South Summit of Everest.

The expedition led by Sir Chris Bonington also climbed the mountain by the South Col route when two climbers Peter Boardman and  Pertemba Sherpa summitted the peak. Sadly, the cameraman Mick Burke who was also with them was lost near the summit in bad weather.

The enormous south west face of Everest was one of the big wall challenges in the Himalaya.

In 1970, Chris Bonington's team had successfully climbed the huge south wall of Annapurna I from the south side, what is now popularly known as ABC (Annapurna Base Camp).

The south west face expedition laid siege on the mountain in the manner of the earlier British expeditions on Everest. There were a series of camps on the mountain and Doug Scott and Dougal Haston made the climb from the highest Camp VI  below the upper snowfield.

Today is almost the 40th anniversary of the first successful ascent and the south west face is still attempted though in variation to the original route climbed by Haston and Scott.

Some photographs from that climb are below:

Haston climbing the Hillary Step

Doug Scott on the summit of Everest 1975

The enormous  south west face of Everest from the Western Cwm

Though Haston, Boardman and Burke have passed away,  all in climbing accidents, Chris Bonington now 80 and Doug Scott are still climbing together as seen in this photograph below on the crags in England!

On 23rd September 2015 a lecture will be held in Oxford which will include all the surviving members of the 1975 expedition. For more details on this lecture please do visit  http://www.canepal.org.uk/2015/03/lecture-oxford-23-september-2015-40th-anniversary-of-the-first-ascent-of-everest-south-west-face/ 

The Boardman Tasker Prize Long List for 2015

The Boardman Tasker prize is given every year to one outstanding book on mountain literature. This is one of the most prestigious awards a mountain  book can get and this year the list of books are awesome. It would be a very difficult job for the jury to pick a winner from the list below. In the meantime while the jury deliberates and decides,  try to read as many of these great books as you can.

My personal recommendations are :

Alpine Warriors

Bernadette McDonald

ISBN 978-1-771601-09-2

The Ghosts of K2: The epic saga of the first ascent ISBN 978-1-78074-595-4

Mick Conefrey

Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan journeys in search of the sacred and the sublime ISBN 978-1-62872-510-0

Stephen Alter

Everest Revealed: the Private Diaries and sketches of Edward Norton 1922-24 ISBN 978-0-7509-5585-0

Christopher Norton

The long list for 2015 is below: Entries
Village of Secrets Defying the Nazis in Vichy France ISBN 978-0-701-18641-8	Caroline Moorhead	Chatto & Windus
After the Wind 1996 Everest Tragedy One Survivor's Story ISBN 978-1-9940877-00-6	Lou Kasischke	Good Hart Publishing LC
Denali's Howl ISBN 978-0-593-07445-9	Andy Hall	Transworld
The Scent of Juniper:Poems of the Himalayas ISBN 978-0692328941	Dr Mikel Vause	Kelsay Books
Make or Break: Don't Let climbing Injuries Dictate Your Success ISBN 9780956428134	David MacLeod	Rare Breed Productions
Statement: The Ben Moon Story ISBN 978-1-906148-98-0	Ed Douglas	Vertebrate Publishing
The Great mountain Crags of Scotland ISBN 978-1-906148-89-8	Guy Robertson & Adrian Crofton	Vertebrate Publishing
One Day as a Tiger ISBN 978-1-910240-08-3	John Porter	Vertebrate Publishing
Beyond Limits ISBN 978-1-910240-19-9	Steve McClure	Vertebrate Publishing
Mount Hood: Adventures of the Wy'East Climbers, 1930-1942 ISBN 978-0-9887339-2-3	Ric Conrad	Kahuna Books
Wilderness Weekends ISBN 978-1-84162-9124	Phoebe Smith	Bradt Travel Guides
Steps ISBN 978-1-906175-24-5	Mark Goodwin	Longbarrow Press
Snowblind: Tales of Alpine Obsession ISBN 978-1-61902-453-3	Daniel Arnold	Counterpoint
The Blind Man of Hoy ISBN 978-1-910124-22-2	Red Szell	Sandstone Press
Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan journeys in search of the sacred and the sublime ISBN 978-1-62872-510-0	Stephen Alter	Arcade Publishing, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing
The Calling: A Life Rocked ISBN 978-1-938340-31-4	Barry Blanchard	Patagonia
The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing & Controversy on Cerro Torre ISBN 978-1-938340-33-8	Kelly Cordes	Patagonia
Everest Revealed: the Private Diaries and sketches of Edward Norton 1922-24 ISBN 978-0-7509-5585-0	Christopher Norton	The History Press
The Adventure Game: A Cameraman's Tales from Films at the Edge ISBN 978-1-910124-31-4	Keith Partridge	Sandstone Press
Wild Nights ISBN 978-1-84953-699-8	Phoebe Smith	Summersdale
The Sunlit Night ISBN 978-1-4088-6303-9	Rebecca Dinerstein	Bloomsbury Publishing
Rise ISBN 978-1-4088-5792-2	Karen Campbell	Bloomsbury Press
In Some Lost Place ISBN 9781-1910240-37-3	Sandy Allen	Vertebrate Publishing
Between the Sunset and the Sea ISBN 978-0-00-754540	Simon Ingram	William Collins, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
Going Up is Easy ISBN 978-0-14-357323-4	Lydia Bradley	Penguin NZ
The Ghosts of K2: The epic saga of the first ascent ISBN 978-1-78074-595-4	Mick Conefrey	OneWorld Publications
Too Close To God ISBN 978-0-9918076-5-9	Jeff Long	Imaginary Mountain Surveyors
Abode of the Gods ISBN 978-1-85284-771-5	Kev Reynolds	Cicerone Press Ltd
A Life on the Edge: Eric Jones ISBN 978-1-84527-549-5	Greg Lewis	Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
Extreme Eiger ISBN 978-1-47113-460-9	Peter Gillman & Leni Gillman	Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
Alpine Warriors ISBN 978-1-771601-09-2	Bernadette McDonald	Rocky Mountain Books
Cold Feet, Stories of a Middling Climber ISBN 978-0692305560	David Pagel	Self published
The Naked Mountaineer, Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler ISBN 978-0-8032-4879-3	Steve Sieberson	University of Nebraska Press
Mountains: Oblique Angles ISBN 978-0-9933659-0-4	Alison Ireland	Hour of Writes Ltd
Run or Die ISBN 978-0-241-00485-2	Kilian Jornet	Viking, Penguin Random House
Apprentice to the Masters of the Golden Age	Pat Ament	e-book

For more details on the prize and winning books of earlier years  do visit www.boardmantasker.com

Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature

Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were two outstanding British mountaineers who vanished high  on the north ridge of Everest in 1982. In their memory, the Boardman Tasker Award is an annual prize for the best in mountain literature. There are 41 entries this year and choosing a winner would be a tough choice! The jury are also expected to read all the books so that is a difficult call!  For those of you who would like to start reading these books before the award is finalised, here is the list courtesy www.boardmantasker.com . Happy reading!

Entries for 2014 1 Tears of the DawnISBN 978-0-9576817-0-5 Jules Lines Shelterstone 2 THE K2 MAN (AND HIS MOLLUSCS)ISBN 978-1-906000-58-5 Catherine Moorhead NEIL WILSON Publishing 3 A Snow Goose & other utopian fictionsISBN 9781907090929 Jim Perrin Cinnamon Press 4 THE ATHOLL EXPEDITIONISBN 978-1-78407309-1 Alex Roddie Self published, printed by Feed-a-read 5 The Corbett Round, A unique continuous traverse of 219 Scottish mountainsISBN 978-0-9927716-0-7 Manny Gordon Self published 6 GREAT HIMALAYA TRAIL, 1,700 KILOMETRES ACROSS THE ROOF OF THE WORLDISBN 9781898573890 Gerda Pauler Baton Wicks 7 The Everest Files, A MISSING TEENAGER CLIMBER. A TRAIL OF DEADLY CLUES. MYSTERY ON THE WORLD'S HIGHEST PEAKISBN 9781906148928 Matt Dickinson Vertebrate Publishing 8 CLIMBING RAMABANG, One Irish climber's explorations in the Himlaya and his overland trip homeISBN 9781909461031 Gerry Galligan Vertebrate Publishing 9 My Father, Frank, Unresting Spirit of EverestISBN 9781898573876 Tony Smythe Vertebrate Publishing 10 Peak Rock, the history, the routesISBN 9781906148720 Phil Kelly, Graham Hoey, Giles Barker Vertebrate Publishing 11 Among Secret Beauties, A memoir of mountaineering in New Zealand and the HimalayasISBN 978-1-877578-48-9 Brian Wilkins Otago University Press, NZ 12 Fast and Free PETE LIVESEY, STORIES OF A ROCK CLIMBING LEGENDISBN 978-1-910077-01-6 John Sheard and Mark Radtke 2QT Limited Publishing 13 IN SEARCH OF PEAKS, PASSES & GLACIERS IRISH ALPINE PIONEERSISBN 978-1-84889-178-4 Frank Nugent The Collins Press 14 FAR, FAR THE DISTANT PEAK, The Life of Wilfrid Noyce, Mountaineer, Scholar, PoetISBN 978-0-9574043-0-4 Stewart Hawkins Curbans Books in collaboration with Amolibros 15 A PASSION FOR MOUNTAINSISBN 978-0-7198-0719-0 Hannah Burrows-Smith Robert Hale Ltd 16 HIGHER GROUND: A mountain guide's lifeISBN 978-1-908-737-564 Martin Moran Sandstone Press 17 IT'S A HILL, GET OVER IT, FELL RUNNING'S HISTORY AND CHARACTERSISBN 978-1-908-737-571 Steve Chilton Sandstone Press 18 THE SUNLIT SUMMIT, The Life of W.H.Murray ISBN 978-1-908-737-380 Robin Lloyd-Jones Sandstone Press 19 Shackles of Convention, Women Mountaineers before 1914ISBN 978-1-85058-964-8 Malcolm Craig Sigma Press 20 TEMPTING THE THRONE ROOM: Surviving Pakistan's Deadliest climbing Season 2013 ISBN 978-1-494-845-841 John Quillen Amazon Creatspace 21 NANGA PARBAT 1970,Tragedy and ControversyISBN 978-0-9563163-2-5 Richard Sale and Jochen Hemmleb Carreg Ltd 22 Pirates of the Hourglass: Wrong No Beauty  Jeffrey O-Brien Jeffrey 23 ADDICTED TO ADVENTURE, Between Rocks and Cold PlacesISBN 978-1-4729-0586-4 Bob Shepton Bloomsbury Publishing 24 LURE OF THE MOUNTAINS: The Life of Bentley Beetham 1924 Everest Expedition mountaineerISBN 978-1-906148-94-2 Michael D.Lowes Vertebrate Publishing 25 The MantisISBN 978-1-906148-88-1 Philip Temple Vertebrate Publishing 26 THE STEADY RUNNING OF THE HOURISBN 978-0-434-02233-5 Justin Go William Heinemann, Random House 27 CHASING THE PHANTOM, In Pursuit of Myth and Meaning in the Realm of the Snow LeopardISBN 978-184819-172-3 Eduard Fischer Singing Dragon 28 DICK ISCHERWOOD MOUNTAINEERISBN 978-178456-010-2 Anthology Compiled by John Ashburner Fast Print Publishing 29 Letters from ChamonixISBN 978-0-9918076-3-5 David Stevenson Imaginary Mountain Surveyors 30 Clawing for the Stars, A Solo Climber in the Highest AndesISBN 978-1-4582-1323-5 Bob Villareal Abbot Press 31 LAW UNTO HIMSELFISBN 978-0-9875264-1-0 Michael Law Open Spaces Publishing 32 My Father's Keep, A Journey of Forgiveness through the HimalayaISBN 978-1-49436-738-1 Ed Abell Self published 33 HANGING ON A LIFE INSIDE BRITISH CLIMBING'S GOLDEN AGEISBN 9781910240007 Martin Boysen Vertebrate Publishing 34 Doubling Back Ten Paths Trodden in MemoryISBN 978-1-908754-54-7 Linda Cracknell Freight Books 35 8000 metresISBN 978 185284 5483 Alan Hinkes Cicerone Press 36 The Cairngorms: A Secret HistoryISBN 978 1780271880 Patrick Baker Birlinn Limited 37 The Call of the MountainsISBN 9781 908373 70-0 Max Landsberg Luath Press Ltd 38 A Walk in the CloudsISBN 978 185284 726 5 Kev Reynolds Cicerone Press 39 The Alchemy of ActionISBN 978 0 9898551 1 2 Doug Robinson Moving Over Stone 40 The Summit. How Triumph Turned to Tragedy on K2's Deadliest DaysISBN 978 1 84717 643 1 Pat Falvey & Pemba Gyalje Sherpa Co Published by O'Brien Press & beyond endurance publishing 41 Travels in Zanskar-A Journey to a Closed KingdomISBN 978 1 908308 51 1 Mark Boyden The Liffey Press

Entries are shown in order received