BANFF, AB, October 13, 2016 - Few people know Canada’s western mountain ranges better than David P. Jones. For those who have hiked, skied, sport climbed or ascended a peak in Canada’s mountain west, there’s every chance it was because Jones had been there first.
The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival is proud to announce David P. Jones as the 2016 recipient of the Summit of Excellence Award. For the first time, the award has been extended to recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to mountain life in Canada (previously it was a Canadian Rockies-based award).
“For more than half a century, Dave P. Jones has been one of the great spirits of our country’s mountains,” says Geoff Powter, a member of the Summit of Excellence committee. “He’s dreamt, mapped, flagged and cut numerous trails, giving the rest of us access to ranges that we’d likely otherwise never have entered.”
David P. Jones is one of Canada’s most accomplished mountaineers. In an unparalleled record, Jones has made the first ascents of nearly 100 unclimbed peaks from the Coast Range to the Rockies to the great northern mountains of Kluane, many of them by notably hard routes, and he’s made more than 100 first ascents of new routes on previously ascended mountains. He’s been just as active a contributor to the world of rock climbing, pioneering some 250 sport routes across southern British Columbia (B.C.).
Jones’s commitment to exploration and discovery started young. Raised outside of Revelstoke B.C., Jones was surrounded by mountains, and itched to explore. “At twelve and half,” Jones says, “I really wanted to go to the Seattle World’s Fair, and I kept bugging my father. He got fed up and finally said, ‘Well, why don’t you goddamn walk?’” Jones took that as permission to go, and he and a friend rode three-speed bikes all the way from Revelstoke to Seattle, taking ten days to get there. That journey was prescient. Jones followed it with decades and decades of deep backcountry exploration with exactly the same flavour.
Jones has made four ascents of Canada’s highest peak, Mount Logan, twice by new routes. His first ascent of Logan’s massive and complex Warbler Ridge was a 27-day epic that remains unrepeated after 40 years. He also blazed Canadian trails in the Himalaya when while ascending Makalu, he became the first Canadian to climb above 8000-metres.
During his prolific career Jones has matched his prodigious exploration with meticulous cataloguing of peaks and their climbs. This commitment naturally led to a role as an author of several climbing guidebooks, beginning with a series of guides of his beloved Selkirk Ranges, (Selkirk North Climbing Guide), and has now expanded to the mammoth job of updating the long-out-of-print guides to the Rockies, in Rockies Central Guide.
“I am honoured to receive this award and in so doing, I wish to acknowledge and thank all those who have climbed with me for over five decades,” says Jones. “I'm very appreciative of each and every climber who has shared the mountains with me and who has contributed to my guidebooks. In short, I am indebted to all my climbing companions.”
The 2016 Summit of Excellence Award is sponsored by Norseman Outdoor Specialist and Yamnuska Mountain Adventures. The award will be presented at the Best of the Festival awards night at this year’s Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival on Sunday, November 6.
About Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival: Created 41 years ago, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world. The nine-day Festival hosted by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada, showcases the world’s best films, books and photographs on mountain subjects – climbing, culture, environment and natural history, exploration and adventure, wildlife, and sport – and attracts the biggest names in mountaineering, adventure filmmaking, and explorers as presenters and speakers. An international jury will also award over $50,000 in prizes for films and books submitted to this year’s Festival competitions.
About the Summit of Excellence Award: Presented by the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival since 1987, the annual Summit of Excellence Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to mountain life in Canada. It is presented in memory of Calgary climber Bill March, an internationally respected mountaineer, author, and educator, who led Canada’s first successful Everest climb in 1982. Recent recipients of the award include Pierre Lemire (2015), Urs Kallen (2014), Ben Gadd (2013), Geoff Powter (2012) and Philippe Delesalle (2011).
About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity: Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to society through cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, world-class performances, and public outreach. www.banffcentre.ca