Simon McCartney’s mountaineering epic The Bond has won the 2016 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. Buy it now in the BMC Shop.
McCartney was announced as the winner of the £3,000 prize at the Boardman Tasker event in Kendal on Friday evening. It is The Bond’s second major success this month, following the book’s win in the Mountain and Wilderness Literature Non-Fiction category at the 2016 Banff Mountain Book Competition, and is Vertebrate Publishing’s third book to win the much-coveted Boardman Tasker Award.
Announcing the winner, chair of judges Graham Desroy described The Bond as a book that “portrays life at the very edge of existence”.
Jon Barton, Vertebrate’s managing director, commented: “When the manuscript for The Bond came in we knew it was something special. This is a unique story that has made for a once-in-a-lifetime book, particularly when you consider it may never have been written as Simon was incredibly lucky to survive on Denali in 1980.”
The Bond is an incredible tale of death-defying climbs in the remote Alaska Range. It takes you on a hair-raising, sweaty-hand-inducing journey with cocky young British Alpinist Simon McCartney as he embarks on his two legendary climbs – the 5,500 foot north face of Mount Huntington, a route so hard and serious that it remains unrepeated to this day, and the near-fatal ascent of the south west face of Denali, the infamous climb which broke the bond between Simon, his partner Jack ‘Stonemaster’ Roberts, and his passion, climbing, for three decades.
“It is too late now: we cannot get down and if we cannot climb the rock band we are dead men.”
But the world is a small place and, after 30 years, Simon and Jack are reconnected by chance and decide to bury the ghosts of when they faced almost certain death high on Denali.
Our congratulations go to Simon McCartney for his well-deserved award for penning an incredibly captivating read, and congratulations also to Vertebrate Publishing for yet another award-winning title.
Christmas bundles!
We know the stress of trying to find the perfect Christmas present, especially when you're like us and have left all your shopping to the last minute! That's why we've packed the BMC Shop with great gift-bundles that cater to everybody.
Make your climbing partner look super cool with the Classic Climbing Essentials Bundle, which includes a pair of belay glasses and DMM chalk bag, amongst others. Or if that's not your bag, grab the Walking Essentials Bundle which saves you more than £22!
So check out the rest of the range of offers available to you from the BMC Shop and save yourself from unnecessarily gaining any extra grey hairs this December.
Take your winter adventure skills to the next level with #MakeWinterCount.
These popular events are back to help you stride out into the winter hills and mountains with confidence. We will be running three events this year, with in person evenings in London on 29th November and Manchester on 30th November, and a virtual event on Zoom on 1st December.
This event is brilliant for anyone who wants to learn more about winter hill and mountain skills. You'll go from bumbling about to striding with confidence to the summit after you've gained all the knowledge from our experts Sam Leary and Mick Jones.
Event content
The evening will cover everything the new winter adventurer could possibly need including:
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What to wear
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Planning your day
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Reading the weather
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Packing a rucksack
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Boots, crampons & axes
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Avalanche awareness
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