Outdoor Book Award Roundup - 2010

Every year a number of outdoor writers compete for fame and perhaps a few extra dollars by submitting their books to three different competitions.

In order of fame, the biggest is perhaps the most well-known is the Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.  This is an award that has been has been established in remembrance for Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, who were lost on Mount Everest in 1982.

The Banff Mountain Film and Mountain Book Festivals happen every year simultaneously in Banff, Alberta.  The Banff Mountain Book Festival is the biggest outdoor literature competition in North America.  This year marked the seventeenth year of this festival.

The National Outdoor Book Award, or NOBA, is a smaller award bestowed on authors and publishers by individuals in the world of outdoor education. The most useful part of the NOBA award for readers is the way that it is broken down.  There are more categories in this particular competition than in any of the others.

Following is a breakdown of this year's winners for each of these prestigious competitions.


Boardman-Tasker Award

Ron Fawcett: Rock Athlete. By Ron Fawcett with Ed Douglas

Banff Mountain Book Festival Awards

Grand Prize. Winner. The Stone Masters: California Climbing in the Seventies. By John Long and Dean Fidelman.

Mountain Literature. Winner. Walking Home.  By Lynn Schooler

Adventure Travel. Winner. Running Dry: A Journey from the Source to Sea Down the Colorado River. By Jon Waterman

Mountain Image.  Winner.  Polar Obsession.  By Paul Nicklen.

Mountain Exposition.  Winner.  Canadian Rock: Select Climbs of the West. By Kevin McLain.

Special Jury Mention.  The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. By John Vaillant.

National Outdoor Book Awards

Nature and the Environment.  Winner.  Adventures Among Ants.  By Mark W. Moffett.

Natural History Literature.  Winner.  An Entirely Synthetic Fish.  By Anders Halverson.

Natural History Literature.  Winner.  The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.  By Elisabeth Tova Bailey. 

Outdoor Literature.  Winner.  Kook.  By Peter Heller.  

Outdoor Literature.  Honorable Mention.  Just Passin' Thru.  By Winton Porter.  

History/Biography.  Winner.  Pilgrims of the Vertical.  By Joseph E. Taylor III.

History/Biography.  Honorable Mention.  The Last Man on the Mountain.  By Jennifer Jordan.

History Biography.  Honorable Mention.  Arctic Labyrinth.  By Glyn Williams

Classic.  Winner.  Annapurna.  By Maurice Herzog.

Children Books.  Winner.  Camping With the President.  By Ginger Wadsworth.

Children Books.  Winner.  Captain Mac:  The Life of Donald Baxter MacMillan.  By Mary Morton

Children Books.  Honorable Mention.  An Egret's Day.  Poems by Jane Yolen.

Design and Artistic Merit.  Winner.  Freshwater Fish of the Northeast.  Illustrated by Matt Patterson. 

Nature Guidebooks.  Winner.  Tracks and Sign of Insects.  By Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney.

Nature Guidebooks.  Honorable Mention.  Night Sky.  By Jonathan Poppele. 

Nature Guidebooks.  Honorable Mention.  Molt in North American Birds.  By Steven N. G. Howell.

Outdoor Adventure Guidebooks.  Winner.  Exploring Havasupai. By Greg Witt.

Instructional Category.  Winner.  Sport Climbing.  By Andrew Bisharat. 

--Jason D. Martin