The 29 finalists in the 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition have been unveiled. Now in its 50th year, the festival showcases books in eight categories, all centered on mountain culture and adventure.
This year, the prescreening committee read 142 submitted works from authors in 11 countries in the following categories: Mountain Literature (non-fiction), Mountain Fiction and Poetry, Mountain Image, Guidebooks, Mountain Article, Environmental Literature, Adventure Travel, and Climbing Literature.
The winner of each category will win a $3,000 prize, and the overall Grand Prize winner will walk away with $5,000. Any book that includes climbing will also be judged in the Climbing Literature category.
The winner of each category will be announced on October 16. One of them will then claim the Grand Prize on November 6 during the Festival itself. The 2025 Book Competition jury members are David Chambre (France), Paul Scully (UK), and Kate Neville (Canada).
Among the nonfiction selections is Vineeta Muni’s Across the Himalaya, a deeply personal recollection of Muni’s 4,500km journey across the Himalaya with seven other Indian women in 1997, led by Bachendri Pal. Mike Bell’s 5.7 Haikus for the Climber is one of three finalists in the Mountain Fiction and Poetry category. It contains 350 haikus about everything climbing and outdoors.
In Adventure Travel, Jeremy Collins’s Eventually a Sequoia is part travel, part sketch book. It contains many stories from the people he has met while traveling through some of the most remote and endangered areas on Earth.
Meanwhile, the Mountain Image finalists include Patagonia National Park: Chile, created by Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, Michelle Bachelet, and Yvon Chouinard — a visual tribute to one of the world’s great conservation success stories.
A Woman Among Wolves by Diane K. Boyd, in the Environmental Literature category, tells the story of her pioneering work studying wolves in Montana. At the time, she was the only female biologist in the U.S. studying wild wolves.
In the Guidebook category, New Horizons by Will Herman details some of the most stunning running routes across the Scottish Highlands.
All of this year’s finalists are listed below (in alphabetical order within their categories).
Mountain Literature (non-fiction) – The Jon Whyte Award
Sponsored by The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Across the Himalaya – Vineeta Muni, Neemtree Tech Labs Pvt Ltd (India, 2025)
Enough: Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest – Melissa Arnot Reid, The Crown Publishing Group (U.S., 2025)
Human Nature: A Walking History of the Himalayan Landscape – Thomas Bell, Penguin Random House India (India, 2024)
Moving the Needle – Dave MacLeod, Rare Breed Productions (UK, 2024)
Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women’s Ascent of Denali – Cassidy Randall, Abrams (U.S., 2025)
Mountain Fiction & Poetry
Sponsored by the Town of Banff
5.7 | Haikus for the Climber – Mike Brown, Boreal Forest Books (Canada, 2024)
An Abundance of Wild Roses – Feryal Ali-Gauhar, Canongate (UK, 2024)
The Empty Rope – Dunstan Power, Black Pear Press Limited (UK, 2024)
Environmental Literature
Sponsored by Rab
A Woman Among Wolves – Diane K. Boyd, Greystone Books (Canada, 2024)
Is a River Alive? – Robert Macfarlane, W. W. Norton & Company (U.S., 2025)
Latitudes: Encounters with a Changing Planet – Jean McNeil, Barbican Press (UK, 2025)
The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light – Craig Childs, Torrey House Press (U.S., 2025)
Travels Up the Creek: A Biologist’s Search for a Paddle – Lorne Fitch, Rocky Mountain Books (Canada, 2024)
Adventure Travel
Sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books
Eventually a Sequoia – Jeremy Collins, Mountaineers Books (U.S., 2025)
Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis – Jon Waterman, Patagonia Books (U.S., 2024)
Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History’s Greatest Arctic Rescue – Buddy Levy, St. Martin’s Press (U.S., 2025)
River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing – Steve Duda, Mountaineers Books (U.S., 2024)
Mountain Image
Sponsored by Mountain Life
All Humans Outside: Stories of Belonging in Nature – Tommy Corey, Mountaineers Books (U.S., 2025)
Eden: A Portrait of Mountain Biking in Aotearoa New Zealand – Nick Stevenson, Thames & Hudson Australia (Aotearoa New Zealand, 2025)
Patagonia National Park: Chile – Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, Michelle Bachelet & Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia Books (U.S., 2024)
Guidebooks
Sponsored by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides
Boulder Canyon Rock Climbs – Topher Donahue, Wolverine Publishing (U.S., 2024)
Northern Horizons – Will Herman, Scottish Mountaineering Press (UK, 2025)
Soča from Source to Sea – Paddling Guidebook – Rok Rozman, Leeway Collective (Slovenia, 2024)
Southern Faces: An Introduction to Rock Climbing in Ōtepoti Dunedin – Riley Smith, WildLab (New Zealand, 2025)
Mountain Article
Sponsored by The Lodge at Bow Lake
Behind the Curtain – Corey Buhay, Summit Journal (U.S., 2025)
Fleet-Winged Ghosts of Greenland – Carolien Van Hemert, Hakai Magazine/BioGraphic (U.S., 2024)
In the Shadow of the Mountain – Natalie Berry, The Fence (UK, 2024)
Something Lost Behind the Ranges – Michael Wejchert, Summit Journal (U.S., 2025)
Writing Like a Mountain: Climbing Literature in the Anthropocene – Katie Ives, The Himalayan Club (India, 2025)
