Personal experience and originality are features of the shortlist for this year’s Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. Unusually, the six books include no biography.

The nominations are:

Climbing Everest, Pat Ament, Ragged Mountain Press A wry meditation on mountaineers’ motives.
The Middle-Aged Mountaineer, Jim Curran, Constable Reflection on climbs, friendships, relationships, and a farewell to expeditioning
Pyrenean High Route, John Harding, Tiercel Despite an avalanche tragedy, Harding became hooked on a ski-traverse of the Pyrenees, undertaken in fine amateur style in stages over 10 years.
Hazard’s Way, Roger Hubank, Ernest Press Wasdale Head in its Edwardian heyday is evoked in this subtle novel of a young man’s search for direction
Touching My Father’s Soul, Jamling Tenzing Norgay, Ebury Press Jamling Norgay follows in the footsteps of his father, telling the Everest story from a Sherpa perspective for a change
Snow in the Kingdom, Ed Webster, Mountain Imagery Webster’s "storm years" on Everest culminating in the audacious 1988 new route up the Kangshung Face. Webster later suffered panic attacks, as well as severe frostbite.

The winner will be announced on Friday 9 November at the Alpine Club, London, and the judges’ speech repeated the following day at the International Festival of Mountaineering Literature at Bretton Hall, University of Leeds, Wakefield.

« Back