The Banff Mountain Book Competition has announced its 2026 category award winners.

Trina Moyles’s memoir Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival is the winner of the environmental literature award. Jack Plant’s Spirit of the Great Bear received a special jury mention.

The literary competition honours the best of international mountain literature in seven categories: environmental literature, adventure travel, mountain image, guidebooks, mountain article, climbing literature, and mountain literature (this year combining nonfiction, fiction, and poetry), with the grand prize winner chosen from among the category winners. The grand prize winner will be announced on Nov. 5 at the book competition’s awards presentation at the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8.

Nine Canadian authors were shortlisted for the various prizes, announced in September.

The winners are:

Environmental Literature 

• Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival by Trina Moyles (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)

Mountain Literature

• Lone Wolf: Walking the Line Between Civilization and Wildness by Adam Weymouth (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)

Adventure Travel

• North to the Future: An Offline Adventure through the Changing Wilds of Alaska by Ben Weissenbach (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group)

Mountain Image

• Fjell: A Faithful Witness by Orsolya Haarberg (Tinde Publishing)

Climbing Literature

• The Great Mixed Climbs of Scotland by Guy Robertson and Hamish Frost (Scottish Mountaineering Press)

Guidebook

• Cabin Wild: Alpine Bivouac Huts by Ben Tibbetts (Alpenglow Editions)

Mountain Article

• “The Misfits” by Chad Heddleston, Summit Journal

Special Jury Mentions

• Spirit of the Great Bear by Jack Plant (Figure 1 Publishing)
• Glacier Climbing & Crevasse Rescue: Essential Skills for Snow Travel by Ian Nicholson (Mountaineers Books)

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