Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature

Established in 1983 to commemorate the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust celebrates their legacy by awarding the annual Award for Mountain Literature and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature, presented by Mountain Equipment, is awarded annually to the author or authors of the best literary work, whether fiction, non-fiction, drama or poetry, the central theme of which is concerned with the mountain environment.

On 17 May 1982 Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were last seen on Mount Everest attempting to traverse The Pinnacles on the unclimbed North East Ridge at around 8250 metres. Their deaths marked the end of their contribution to a remarkable era in British mountaineering. The Boardman Tasker Award highlights the memory of Pete and Joe, but it also seeks to do more than just that. The Award recognises and rewards outstanding literature concerned with the mountain environment: books which will in turn challenge and inspire their readers, perhaps to climb or explore the world of mountains, perhaps to write or perhaps to look at the world in a different way. Perpetuating and refreshing the challenge and inspiration of mountains through literature is one way in which we seek to remember them. The winner of the Boardman Tasker Award is a book that Pete and Joe would be proud of being associated with.

This year's judges are Joanna Croston and Paul Pritchard, Chair of judges is Matt Fry.

The 2023 Shortlisted Authors are:

Pradeep Bashyal & Ankit Babu Adhikari 
SHERPA:
Stories Of Life And Death From The Forgotten Guardians Of Everest 

Katie Brown
UNRAVELED
A Climber’s Journey Through Darkness And Back

Merryn Glover
THE HIDDEN FIRES
A Cairngorms Journey With Nan Shepherd

Leo Houlding
CLOSER TO THE EDGE

Faye Rhiannon Latham
BRITISH MOUNTAINEERS