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Alpinist Contributors Recognized Among Banff Mountain Book Festival Award Finalists

From Alpinist 49: Arita Sherpa and Ang Tsering Sherpa on the Western Cwm of Everest (8848m). In Three Springs, Jemima Diki Sherpa writes, ‘”They ask how many kilos you can carry,’ says every Sherpa who has ever traveled abroad.”

[Photo] Jimmy Chin

The Banff Centre, Alberta: We’re two weeks away from the announcement of the category winners at the 2015 Banff Mountain Book Competition. On the finalist list are the works of two writers published in the pages of Alpinist. Ed Douglas’s “Crazy Wisdom” from Issue 49 and Rick Accomazzo’s “He Would Just Go: Tobin Sorenson and the Alps, 1977,” also from Issue 49, have been selected as category finalists for the new Mountaineering Article Award.

The award sponsors are: University of Alberta–Faculty of Physical Education, The Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative and The Alpine Club of Canada.

This is the 40th anniversary of the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival. The event’s winners will be announced on November 5. Learn more about the Book Competition here.

The opening paragraphs from both Alpinist articles are below:

Crazy Wisdom Alpinist 49 by Ed Douglas:

Beside the Dudh Kosi, the milk river, I stopped to watch the sunlight filter through the pines. The cold mountain air tickled my nose. It had been a grim week in Kathmandu. I’d spent four days tracking events on Everest, talking to those flying back from the mountain in the helicopters that carried the dead and injured from the avalanche of April 18. Now, as I walked to base camp, I felt glad to have stepped back from such intensity, if only for a while.

He Would Just Go: Tobin Sorenson and the Alps, 1977 Alpinist 49
by Rick Accomazzo:

When Tobin Sorenson came up the final pitch of the Dru Couloir Direct, I told him to wait while I grabbed the camera. The brilliant light illuminated a disheveled figure, entirely clad in wool and leather: a wool sweater, wool knickers, wool knee socks, leather boots, a leather belt with extra notches to fit his wiry frame, and on the belt, a leather holster for his piolet. From his wrists, Dachstein mitts of boiled wool hung on homemade tethers, like the ones mothers tie onto kindergartners. His smile was one of pure delight, the grin of a kid on the last day of school.

From Alpinist 49: A portrait of Tobin Sorenson (1955-1980). [Illustration] Alex Baum

The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival takes place October 31 through November 8.

Alpinist back issues are available for sale here. Download Alpinist from the iTunes App Store here.

Source: banffcentre.ca