.
| 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
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.
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.
Winner. Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges. By Bernadette McDonald. Mountaineers Books, Seattle. ISBN 9781680515787
| 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 others. What she discovers, and shares with us in the book, is nothing short of astonishing.
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 & 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 minus 50. 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 & 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.
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
| 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.
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
Note that a Silver Medal is not awarded in every category. It is only awarded when the winner and second place book are very closely scored.
Official NOBA reviews prepared by Ron Watters. Reviews are based on comments and insights provided by members of the judging panels. A special thanks to Katherine Daly for her editorial work. No artifical intelligence (AI) was employed in the preparation of these reviews.
| End of Listing: 2024 National Outdoor Book Awards |
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Judges Natalie Bartley, Boise, ID Cort Conley, Boise, ID Louis Dzierzak, Minneapolis, MN Dale Harrington, Boone, NC Rob Jones, Salt Lake City, UT Paul Kallmes, Oakland, CA Rodney Ley, Fort Collins, CO Kate Mapp, Heber City, UT John Miles, El Prado, NM Jill Morgan, Cynthiana, KY Anders Morley, Littleton, NH James Moss, JD Littleton, CO Tom Mullin, Richmond, ME Marina Richie, Bend, OR Tracy Salcedo, Glen Ellen, CA Tammie L. Stenger-Ramsey, Bowling Green, KY Ann Weiler Walka, Flagstaff, AZ Ron Watters, Pocatello, ID Melanie Wulf, Des Moines, IA |
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