The Trust was established to promote literature by providing an annual award to authors of literary works, the central theme of which is concerned with the mountain environment. The prize of £3,000 commemorates the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker and is given to the author or co-authors of an original work, which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature.

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.

Pete and Joe left a record of mountaineering achievements that was outstanding for its time. Their climbs were technically demanding and committing and at the forefront of the application of alpine climbing techniques to Himalayan peaks. The most brilliant example was their ascent of the West Wall of Changabang in 1976. As well as their climbing achievements they also left us their books, recognised as classics of the genre and still selling steadily in various formats after almost forty years. They also left memories in the minds of all who knew them, climbed with them, were taught by them or simply met them as they went about their day-to-day lives.

In different ways, the climbs, the books, the personal interactions triggered responses that challenged, inspired and indeed changed some people’s lives and their view of the world. Those people then went on to pass on the challenge and the inspiration to others.

The Boardman Tasker Award highlights afresh 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.

The original trustees were family members and friends of Peter and Joe. Although some original trustees remain, there have been changes over the years. Incoming trustees have tended to be family members or persons who hold dear the purpose of the Trust. They are not remunerated.

The trustees are responsible for managing the Trust and its assets, for appointing judges, for staging the annual BT Award Event and presenting the prize.

The judges are appointed by the trustees. They are independent and to ensure that independence no judge serves more than two years in succession. There is a panel of three judges, one of whom will be appointed as chair of judges by the trustees. The chair will normally have been a judge the previous year. Since 2017 the judges receive an honorarium, upon receipt of the shortlist.

The role of the judges is to read the submissions and select a shortlist from which they will eventually determine the winner. The judges are requested to attend the Award event and the chair is expected to make a speech about the submissions and the short listed books and to announce the winner.

Barely a month after Pete and Joe disappeared, a small group meeting in Manchester agreed to progress an as yet undefined Boardman Tasker Memorial. The Award itself has its origins in a meeting of friends and relatives in Dorothy Boardman’s sitting room in December 1982. All those gathered there shared a desire both to preserve the memory of Joe and Pete, but also to do so in a way, which would be inspirational for those who would follow. They also felt a duty to respond to people’s wish to donate to a “fitting memorial”. It was agreed that a prize for mountain literature would meet all of these objectives. A Trust was formed and over £20,000 raised, through an appeal.

The first judging took place the following year in 1983. The judges, Lord Hunt, David Cox and Ronald Faux, set a high standard using the books of Joe and Pete as benchmarks. Somewhat bravely, this led them to decide not to award the prize to any of the books entered that first year as in their view the quality did not meet the level set by Pete and Joe’s works. The following year was different and there were two joint winners, Linda Gill’s Living High, and The Shishapangma Expedition by Doug Scott and the late Alex MacIntyre - the quality standard had been reached!

Over the following years, the high standards were maintained and entries challenged our judges not least through the sheer variety of literary types - novels, poetry, expeditions, biography, history, reminiscences, and mountain travel and so on. The annual award event was first held at the Alpine Club in South Audley Street until 1989 and then returned to the Alpine Club’s new premises in Charlotte Road until 2005 with the year of the actual move seeing us temporarily in a Barclays West End Management suite! In 2007, the Award event moved to Kendal with the Kendal Mountain Festival as hosts and there it remains to the benefit of both parties. Indeed the BT Short Listed Authors event, followed by the Award ceremony is regarded, by KMF, as the key opening event.

Over the first thirty years through special appeals, events and gifts the Trust has received around £60,000 in donations to support the memory of Pete and Joe through the prize. In that period, there were 526 entries, assessed by 46 different judges who selected 30 winners, enabling the Trust to distribute over £50,000 in prize money. Yet careful financial management and a steady trickle of continuing donations lead the Trustees to anticipate that we can look forward to another 30 years if the support of friends continues.

As can be seen from the website, the pace has continued to increase since the 30th anniversary and in recent years, there have been over 30 entries per year. In addition, in 2013 and 2014 a Young Writers Award was held on an experimental basis, which produced worthy winners but relatively few entries and so it was discontinued. The Trust is continuing to explore how to develop ways of commemorating Pete and Joe and their lives and achievements beyond the principal Award. In 2014 and 2015 special BT Lifetime Achievement Awards were made to two individuals who had both made major contributions to mountain literature, and been keen supporters of the Award – Jim Curran in 2014 and Ken Wilson in 2015.

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.

Peter Boardman

Peter Boardman, born on Christmas Day 1950, was educated at Stockport Grammar School and took a degree in English at Nottingham University. His first expedition was to the Afghan Hindu Kush with Martin Wragg and others in 1972 and in 1975 he was a member of the Everest South West Face Expedition led by Chris Bonington. As one of the strongest members of the expedition he was chosen for the second ascent, reaching the summit on 26 September 1975.

After Everest his expeditions followed with impressive speed. In 1976 he made a winter traverse of the Polish High Tatra and later that year joined Joe Tasker on the legendary climb of Changabang. In 1978, by now established as one of the most respected high altitude climbers, he took part in the K2 Expedition, which was marred by the tragic death of Nick Estcourt, and in 1979 successfully climbed Kangchenjunga with Joe Tasker and Doug Scott. Later that year he was to climb Gauri Sankar South in Nepal and in 1980 returned to K2 with Joe Tasker and Dick Renshaw reaching 7975m but poor weather and exhaustion prevented a further summit attempt.

Mount Kongur followed in 1981 and in March 1982 in a small expedition with Chris Bonington, Joe Tasker and Dick Renshaw he attempted the North East Ridge of Everest in which he and Joe Tasker so tragically lost their lives.

Peter's talent for writing emerged through his climbing career. The success of his first book, The Shining Mountain, was immediate in the climbing world and won him wider acclaim with the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize for literature in 1979. Sacred Summits, published shortly after his death, described the climbing year of 1979, about the trips to New Guinea, Kangchenjunga and Gauri Sankar South.

Peter Boardman obituary

Joe Tasker

Joe Tasker was born in Hull in 1948. As the eldest son of a strong Catholic family, Joe went to Ushaw College, a Roman Catholic seminary, at the age of thirteen. After gaining a first class honours degree in sociology at Manchester University, he decided not to settle into a career but to allow himself the freedom to climb. His early mountaineering was largely spent in the Alps where he climbed a number of demanding routes, and the North Face of the Eiger in the winter of 1974/5, and the second ascent of the rarely climbed East Face of the Grand Jorasses. Both these ascents were made with Dick Renshaw

In 1975 he experienced his first Himalayan peaks, preferring small lightweight expeditions. After Dunagiri in 1976, he conceived the audacious idea of climbing the awesome West Wall of Changabang with Peter Boardman. In 1977 he attempted, without success, the North Ridge of Nuptse and in 1978 he went with Chris Bonington's expedition to K2, where he witnessed the huge avalanche that swept away his friend Nick Estcourt. The following year, in 1979, he went to Nepal and successfully climbed Kangchenjunga with Doug Scott and Peter Boardman. In 1980 he returned to K2 and in epic attempts with Peter Boardman and Dick Renshaw reached 7975m before being defeated by extreme conditions.

Shortly after returning from K2, Joe was part of a team that attempted a winter ascent of the West Ridge of Everest. Later that year, in 1981, he reached the Mount Kongur summit, an unclimbed peak in Western China, with Chris Bonington, Peter Boardman and Alan Rouse. He returned again to Everest in March 1982 to climb the North East Ridge on which he tragically lost his life with Peter Boardman.

Joe developed a special talent for writing along with film and photographic work. His first book, Everest The Cruel Way, was an exciting account of the winter attempt on Everest and his second book, Savage Arena, was finished just before he left for Everest in 1982.

Joe Tasker obituary