NEWS: Vertebrate shortlisted for Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature 2022

Photo © Melinda Oogjes

The Mountain Path by climber Paul Pritchard has been shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature 2022.

The book was shortlisted among six other titles from a total of forty submissions.

The Chair of Judges Marni Jackson said: 'The author of Deep Play has gone even deeper in this investigation into the spiritual rewards of a life in the mountains. After Pritchard was almost killed by a falling rock while climbing a sea stack in Tasmania, he had to push through new physical limitations to philosophical insights that changed his life. A beautifully written, devastatingly honest account of choosing to live.'

In 1998 Pritchard was struck on the head by falling rock while climbing Totem Pole in the Tasman National Park. The Mountain Path is the story of his attempt to return to his life of adventure – cycling across Tibet and returning to Totem Pole to face the challenge that almost ended his life.

The Boardman Tasker Award was established in 1983 to commemorate the lives of outstanding British mountaineers and authors Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker who lost their lives on the North East Ridge of Mount Everest in 1982. The annual prize promotes literature by awarding £3,000 to authors of an outstanding work concerned with the mountain environment.

This is the thirteenth year Vertebrate titles have been selected for the shortlist, with four titles having previously won the prize: Ron Fawcett’s Rock Athlete in 2010, Andy Kirkpatrick’s Cold Wars in 2012, The Bondby Simon McCartney in 2016, and in 2017, Art of Freedom by Bernadette McDonald.

The four titles that complete the shortlist are Climbing the Wallsby Kieran Cunningham; Time on Rock by Anna Fleming; High Risk by Brian Hall and A Line Abovethe Sky by Helen Mort.

The winner will be announced at the Kendal Mountain Festival on 18 November.

Click HERE to buy your copy of The Mountain Path.