Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival on climb.mountainzone.com

This year’s finalists in the Banff Mountain Book Festival run the gamut from tragedy to humor, from adventure to reflection. From the high peaks of the Himalaya to the deserts of Arabia, the finalists in the festival’s 7th annual competition tell stories of courage, passion, inspiration and humor. 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: $50
•  Best Book — Adventure Travel, sponsored by Outpost magazine: $500

The finalists in each category are:

Mountain Literature Finalists

· Climbing the World's 14 Highest Mountains — The History of the 8000-meter Peaks
Richard Sale & John Cleare (The Mountaineers Books) (Buy It)

· Creagh Dhu Climber: The Life & Times of John Cunningham
Jeff Connor (The Ernest Press)

· El Capitan
Daniel Duane (Chronicle Books) (Buy It)

· Extreme Rock & Ice
Garth Hattingh (New Holland Publishing, South Africa)

· Life and Death on Mt. Everest
Sherry Ortner (Princeton University Press) (Buy It)

· My Quest for Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas' Deepest Mystery
Reinhold Messner (St. Martin's Press) (Buy It)

· Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire
Nicholas Howe (Appalachian Mountain Club Books) (Buy It)

· Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering
Chic Scott (Rocky Mountain Books) (Buy It)

· A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya
Stephen Venables (Random House UK)

· Stone Palaces
Geof Childs (The Mountaineers Books) (Buy It)

· True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna
David Roberts (Simon & Schuster) (Buy It)

· Two for the Summit: My Daughter, the Mountains and Me
Geoffrey Norman (Dutton) (Buy It)

· View from the Summit
Edmund Hillary (Transworld Publishers) (Buy It)

· Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood
Orville Schell (Henry Holt and Company, Inc.) (Buy It)

· The Wildest Dream: The Biography of George Mallory
Peter & Leni Gillman (The Mountaineers Books) (Buy It)

Mountain Exposition Finalists

· The Complete Climber's Handbook
Jerry Cinnamon (Ragged Mountain Press) (Buy It)

· Guide to Climbing Photography
Jeff Achey (Stackpole Books) (Buy It)

· A Hiker's Guide to the Rocky Mountain Art of Lawren Harris
Lisa Christensen (Fifth House Ltd.) (Buy It)

Mountain Image Finalists

· Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography
· Antony Decaneas (The Mountaineers Books) (Buy It)

· Chasms of Silence
Marten Berkman (Folio Gallery for Waterous & Co.)

· Denali: Reflections of a Naturalist
Kennan Ward (Creative Publishing, Intl.) (Buy It)

· Millennium 2000 #2
Betta Gobbi (Vivalda Editori SRI.)

Adventure Travel Finalists

· Along the Inca Road
Karin Muller (National Geographic Society) (Buy It)

· Alpine Circus
Michael Finkel (Lyons Press) (Buy It)

· National Geographic Expeditions Atlas
Tom Melham (National Geographic Society) (Buy It)

· Patagonia: Notes from the Field
Nora Gallagher (Chronicle Books) (Buy It)

· Sand Dance: By Camel Across Arabia's Great Southern Desert
Bruce Kirkby (McClelland & Stewart)

2000 Book Festival special guests:

· 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 (Buy It)
· 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
· Mike Finkel: Alpine Circus