Boardman Tasker Award Ceremony

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 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 Natalie Berry and Matt Fry, Chair of judges is Marni Jackson. 

The award ceremony will contain readings from the six shortlisted authors and they will be in conversation with presenter and legendary mountaineer Stephen Venables. 

The 2022 shortlisted authors are:

• Kieran Cunningham: Climbing the Walls, Learning to cope when your world crumbles - Simon & Schuster
• Anna Fleming: Time on Rock, A climber’s route into the mountains - Canongate Publishing
• Brian Hall: High Risk, Climbing to extinction - Sandstone Press
• Robert Charles Lee: Through Dangerous Doors, A life at risk - WiDO Publishing
• Helen Mort: A Line Above the Sky, A story of mountains and motherhood - Ebury Press
• Paul Pritchard: The Mountain Path, A climber’s journey through life and death - Vertebrate Publishing

More information about each book can be found on the Boardman Tasker Website. 

The Boardman Tasker Shortlisted Authors and Awards event is proudly supported by Mountain Equipment.