Greetings from Peaklessburg.

What’s your favorite job that you had? The one you had, couldn’t hold forever, and then one day you had to move on. Maybe it wasn’t a job; maybe it was college, or high school. Or a time when you were with your friends and they were all nearby. Well, I have come to one of those transitions.

I am sipping a little special Scotch while writing this. (It’s a 10-year old Glenmorangie from my father-in-law, but it’s probably much older, since he doesn’t remember when he got it and the cork broke and the bottom half of the cylinder is floating against the glass in golden drink from the isle’s fabled glen.) I am not indulging to help the flow of words, but to toast you, my readers including several friends I have made through writing this blog. I started writing this blog in the heyday of blogging and I changed pace and took a break but never stopped. Until now. I explain why in my final post, which I hope you take a moment read.

This is also my last e-newsletter. I intend to keep the account active so people can access the archives and I might choose to send out a special note. I mean, I have a book review in the current 2025 American Alpine Journal, and I have another coming up in Alpinist 92 this winter. Even though I am not committing to another blog post and newsletter, I am still seriously interested in climbing, alpine mountaineering, and mountain literature. If you want to unsubscribe, you can, of course, but I don’t know what the future will bring or what I might want to share. But for this issue of the newsletter, I have two posts, one not about the sunset of the blog, a couple of books to mention, and a note on the Banff Mountain Literature Competition. Let's go…

RECENT POSTS, in case you missed them...

The Demise of the Climbing Guidebook

Earlier this month, Gavin Feek had an article on Outside, Inc’s Climbing dot com: “Can Climbing Guidebooks Survive the Digital Age–and Do They Need To?” It considered the threat crowdsourced online guides and the future of printed guidebooks through the example of KAYA owner David Gurman offering to buy the rights to the content of the Wind River Range guidebook from author David Lloyd. Well, unlike my headline, guidebooks are changing with the trends. Check out the whole piece here.

That’s It… For Now

This blog has opened lot of opportunities. Its best output has been making friendships and acquaintances with Katie Ives, Bob Schelfhout-Aubertijn, Elizabeth McDonald, Dawn Hollis, Joanna Croston, David Smart, David Stevenson, among others. Well, we’ve talked more than shop, I have their email, and conversed multiple times initiated by me at times and sometimes they reached out. That has meant a lot to me. I am still in awe that I–an out-of-shape climber–have contributed to Alpinist Magazine multiple times and was included on the damn dust jacket of Hollis’ Mountains Before Mountaineering (2024). Read the whole post here.

THE BANFF FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

You probably saw this already, but in case you haven’t, well you should probably know. Here are the Banff Mountain Literature Competition Finalists:

• Adventure Travel Category: Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis by Jon Waterman, Patagonia Books (USA, 2024)

• Mountain Fiction & Poetry Category: An Abundance of Wild Roses by Feryal Ali-Gauhar, Canongate (UK, 2024)

• Mountain Literature (Non Fiction) Category, aka The Jon Whyte Award: Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali by Cassidy Randall, Abrams (USA, 2025)

• Environmental Literature Category: The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light by Craig Childs, Torrey House Press (USA, 2025)

• Mountain Image Category: Eden: A Portrait of Mountain Biking in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Stevenson, Thames & Hudson Australia (Aotearoa New Zealand, 2025)

• Guidebook Category: Northern Horizons by Will Herman, Scottish Mountaineering Press (UK, 2025)

• Mountain Article Category: Fleet-Winged Ghosts of Greenland by Caroline Van Hemert, Hakai Magazine/BioGraphic (USA, 2024)

• Climbing Literature Category: Moving the Needle by Dave MacLeod, Rare Breed Productions (UK, 2024)

• Two special jury mentions: 1. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane, W. W. Norton & Company (USA, 2025), and 2. Across the Himalaya by Vineeta Muni, Neemtree Tech Labs Pvt Ltd (India, 2025)

For a niche genre, it’s impressive we have titles every year not just to be awarded, but rise to the top among several candidates. The grand prize winner will be announce on the evening of November 6th.

NICK BULLOCK ALPINE AND FLATLANDS BASEBALL

My reading list hasn't changed too much. After I finished Meltdown by Sarah Boone (2025) and Echoes by Nick Bullock (2012), I got the audiobook via Spotify ofTides by Bullock (2019). I wish I was reading the hard copy because, even more than in Echoes, there are more lines worth writing down, like this in Chapter 6: “It shouldn't matter if we run away and escape. But it does. What matters is that we don't attempt to complete this climb for the wrong reason. Reasons no one should climb for: Money and perceived fame. That would a really poor reason to die.” Amen.

I am also reading a widely recommended book about baseball from a couple of years ago, The Tao of the Backup Catcher by Tim Brown with Erik Kratz. It’s about the players that rarely play, are released from contracts often, and yet every team needs backup catchers or catchers in waiting, to play the game and prepare players, condition pitchers into stars, and keep the system working. Their underappreciated and incredibly valuable and often unseen. It’s an allegory for everyone that loves what they do and unsure if their role is unseen or destined for more, and being okay with less. Do you need to be a baseball fan to read this, I’m biased so I don’t know for certain, but I think there is enough non-baseball humanity issues for everyone to relate to regardless of your fondness for sports or baseball specifically. Well, that’s what I’m reading.

So, farewell, for now. Thank you for subscribing and reading. And, of course, please be sure to subscribe to a climbing magazine amd renew your subscription. It to supports the climbing community and climbing writing in print, which I know you value, no matter what A.I. might do.

Andrew, always The Suburban Mountaineer