Full Reviews Follows . . .

Full Reviews of Winners

Outdoor Literature.  Winner.  A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon.  By Kevin Fedarko.  Scribner, New York.  ISBN 9781501183058.

One of the ultimate trekking challenges is to hike the length of the Grand Canyon while staying under the rim the entire distance.  Author Kevin Fedarko and photographer Pete McBride thought it might be a lark to give it try.  They quickly learn, however, that it’s no walk in the park.  Less than a week after getting started, they hobble out of the canyon, exhausted and barely surviving the ordeal.  Wising up, they recalibrate and seek the help of friends and canyon experts to better prepare for the journey.  What a journey it turns out to be!  Fedarko is a gifted storyteller, and you’ll find yourself quickly taken in by his self-deprecating humor as they undertake the trek again, this time with a new reverence for the canyon.  But the hike is only one part of the overall story.  The broader theme is the Grand Canyon: the river that carved it, its geology, and the cultural and human history imprinted on it.

 

Outdoor Literature.  Silver Medalist.  Sailing Alone: A Surprising History of Isolation and Survival at Sea.  By Richard J. King.  Viking, New York.  ISBN 9780593656044.

Let’s face it.  Reading a compendium of stories about historic sailing journeys can get a little tedious at times.  But not in this book.  Not when Richard King is doing the telling.  What King does to heighten interest and keep the narrative flowing is to gradually recount the experiences of his own solo passage across the Atlantic.  By blending these two aspects of the story—historic and personal—he creates an indelible portrait of what it is really like when sailing alone across the vast and unpredictable wilderness of the sea.

 

Journeys.  Winner.  Where the Falcon Flies:  A 3,400 Kilometre Odyssey from my Doorstep to the Arctic.  By Adam Shoalts.  Allen Lane/Penguin Canada, Toronto.  ISBN 9780735241015.

One thing is certain about Adam Shoalts.  He is one tough guy.  In a past trek, he travelled alone across the Arctic from the Yukon Territory to Nunavut in eastern Canada, a staggering 2,500 mile journey.  In another adventure, he crossed the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a vast, subarctic swamp, inhabited by arguably the largest concentration of blood sucking insects on the planet.  This engrossing book is about his latest venture:  a canoe journey which begins near his home in Lake Erie and ends 2,000 miles to the north in the Arctic.  All of his wilderness experiences come to play in this journey—and even some civilization skills—as he paddles through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River and finally through northern wilderness.  An exceptionally fine writer as well as adventurer, Shoalts knows how to keep you turning the pages, whisking you along, every paddle stroke of the way.

 

Journeys.  Winner.  Arctic Traverse:  A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range.  By Michael Engelhard.  Mountaineers Books.  Seattle.  ISBN  9781680516784.

In Artic Traverse, Michael Engelhard takes us on two journeys.  The first is a solo hiking and paddling journey across the Brooks Range of northern Alaska.  Engelhard has a way with words, capturing the beauty of the Arctic and his day-to-day experiences with penetrating and moving prose.  The other journey is an inward one.  As his journey progresses westward, he draws from cultural historians, conservationists, biologists, and philosophers, pondering the nature of wildness and our complicated relationship with it.  This is a marvelous work and is certainly deserving of a place among the best of Alaskan outdoor literature. 

 

History/Biography.  Winner. Survival is Not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Donini.  By Geoff Powter.  Mountaineers Books, Seattle.  ISBN 9781680515374.

In this extraordinarily well-done biography, Geoff Powter lifts the veil on the life of alpinist Jim Donini.  What makes this book stand out is the way that Powter inserts the reader in the biography.  It’s akin to hiking with Donini to the base of a climb, and listening, while Donini casually reveals more and more of himself.  Yes, we get the low-down on Donini’s amazing climbs in Patagonia, Alaska, Pakistan and elsewhere, but what makes Powter’s narrative shine is that we come to know this complex man, and the peaks and valleys of his life, apart from his time in the climbing world. 

 

History/Biography.  Winner.  Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges.  By Bernadette McDonald.  Mountaineers Books, Seattle.  ISBN 9781680515787.

The early climbs of the great mountains of the Himalaya and Karakoram depended on the support of the local people living there such as Sherpas of Nepal or Baltis of northern Pakistan.  Adventure literature often focuses on the exploits of western climbers, but Bernadette McDonald rightly turns her attention locally, to the unsung heroes of mountaineering.  Based on interviews and solid research, McDonald ably tells their side of the story, covering key personages and notable ascents from the early 1900s to the present. 

 

Natural History Literature.  Winner.  The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth.  By Zoë Schlanger.  HarperCollins Publisher, New York.  ISBN 9870063073852.

In this fascinating work, Zoë Schlanger brings us up to date on past and current research on plant behavior and intelligence.  She poses a series of questions.  Can plants detect touch?  Do they have the ability to exchange information?  Can they listen to their surroundings?  And the biggie:  do plants have memory?  To find the answers, she travels far and wide, introducing us to researchers and their work.  Those she visits are serious researchers, doing serious scientific work that can be replicated by other researchers.  What she discovers, and shares with us in the book, is nothing short of astonishing.

 

Natural History Literature.  Winner.  With Every Great Breath: New and Selected Essays 1995-2023.  By Rick Bass.  Counterpoint, Berkeley, CA.  ISBN 9781640096301.

Rick Bass needs no introduction.  He is clearly in the top echelon of American writers, and you’ll see why in this series of well-turned essays.  The range of subjects is broad: firefighting, whales, larch trees, elephants, wolves, polar bears, and an environmental disaster close to his home.  He has a distinctive and folksy voice, and the ability to swing from description to drama.  If you’ve never read anything by Bass, this is an excellent place to start.

 

Design and Artistic Merit.  Winner. The Colorado River: Chasing Water.  By Pete McBride.  Rizzoli, New York.  ISBN 9780847899746.

In this striking, large format book, photographer Pete McBride takes us down the Colorado River from its source to sea.  With just the right amount of text and a whole lot of images, this book tells a story.  The story is about the river’s beauty and its rugged canyons, of course, but the larger story told by McBride is how the river is used.  With fifteen dams on its main stem and hundreds more on its tributaries, the river serves millions of people in the Southwest.  McBride captures all of this by blending several forms of photography: aerial, landscape and his trademark fine art.  With instructive captions and stunning, full-page photography you’ll come away from this book with a better understanding of this great river of the West.

 

Classic. Winner.  Minus 148: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley.  By Art Davidson.  Mountaineers Books, Seattle.  ISBN  9781594857553.

No doubt about this one. Minus 148 is a classic of outdoor adventure. First published in 1969, it tells the story of eight men attempting the first winter ascent of Mount McKinley (now renamed Denali). Three members of the team managed to reach the summit but were engulfed in a ferocious storm at 18,000 feet. The winds exceeded 150 miles per hour and the temperature dropped to 50 below. Faced with an unimaginable wind chill of 148 degrees below zero, they found themselves trapped. This is a story of grit, determination, and the will to live—and it's a story that will keep you reading well into the night.

 

Nature and the Environment.  Winner.  The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession.  By Amy Stewart.  Random House, New York.  ISBN 9780593446850.

Amy Stewart is both an artist and a writer and has a way of combining art and science to educate and inspire.  In this book, she introduces us to fifty individuals whose lives and trees are intertwined.  For some, trees have helped them to heal.  For others, trees improve the beauty of their neighborhood.  Still others plant trees to preserve them.  Illustrated with Stewart’s lovely and expressive watercolor paintings, the book is a celebration of trees and a tribute to their passionate devotees.

 

Children’s Category.  Winner.  Kids Field Guide to Birds.  By Daisy Yuhas.  Cool Springs Press, Beverly, MA.  ISBN 9780760385616.

Do you have a young naturalist who wants to learn about birds?  Daisy Yuhas has the perfect answer with this new identification guide for children.  From the outside, it doesn’t look like an adult’s identification guide—which is a good thing.  Children need something a little different.  The book is a bit larger than a typical adult guide, providing ample room on the pages for identification hints, illustrations, and fun facts.  Moreover, it doesn’t overwhelm by taking on too many birds.  Rather, Yuhas covers an easy-to-handle 80 species, most of which can be found throughout the US and Canada.  For children 8 to 12 years old.

 

Children’s Category.  Silver Medalist.  Let’s Learn to Fish, Everything You Need to Know to Start Freshwater Fishing.  By Dan Armitage.  Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA.  ISBN 9781635865820.

No one knows better how to teach kids to fish than the author Dan Armitage.  He runs the popular “Kids Fishing Fun” programs at outdoor equipment shows and stores across the United States.  Most importantly, Armitage is a dad, and he knows what works with kids.  He has put much of that knowledge and experience in this book.  Chock-full of illustrations, it covers all aspects of fishing, perfect for eager youngsters who can’t wait to get started.   For children 6 and older.

 

Nature Guides.  Winner. A Field Guide to the Connecticut River:  From New Hampshire to Long Island Sound.  By Patrick J. Lynch.  Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.  ISBN 9780300264203.

Patrick Lynch sure knows his stuff—a lot of stuff!  His field guide to New England’s 400-mile Connecticut River is impressive in its thoroughness and range of topics covered: geology, ecology, plant and animal identification, and environmental history.  Sized perfectly for outdoor use, the 320-page guide will fit in a fanny pack.  With clear and understandable text and over 750 maps, photographs and illustrations, you couldn’t ask for a better companion to have along on your next trip to the river.

 

Outdoor Adventure Guides.  Winner.  The Avalanche Factor: Understanding and Avoiding Avalanches.  By Joe Stock.  Stock Alpine LLC, Anchorage, AK.  ISBN  9798218142254

What makes this new text on avalanche safety by Joe Stock especially useful is the book’s illustrative and graphical content.  Hardly a page goes by without visuals of some kind, and Joe Stock takes full advantage of them.  Doubling their value as instructional tools, he overlays textual information on the images, clarifying what you are seeing.  He might use an image to demystify a key aspect of avalanche avoidance, or to point out a dangerous terrain feature, or even to highlight a mistake that he’s personally made in the field.  It’s all there in one complete package:  a fine, new addition to avalanche safety instructional books.

 

Outdoor Adventure Guides.  Winner.  A Climber’s Guide to the Teton Range.  By Renny Jackson and Leigh N Ortenburger.  Photographs by Greg Winston.  Mountaineers Books, Seattle.  ISBN 9781680511970.

When it comes to climbing guidebooks, A Climber’s Guide to the Teton Range is in a class of its own.  This is its fourth edition, covering 900 routes on more than 235 peaks.  In addition to route descriptions, the guide includes sections on geology, climatology and an extensive history of Teton climbing.  In presenting this award, the judges also wanted to recognize the contributions of the authors.  The guide’s originator was Leigh Ortenburger who published the first edition in 1956, and which, in succeeding years, became the standard by which other climbing guides were judged.  Ortenburger passed away in 1991, but his work was capably carried on by Renny Jackson, a long-time climbing ranger and a helicopter short-haul specialist, a rescue technique which has saved many lives in the Tetons and elsewhere. 

 

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