Rock Athlete, the autobiography of British rock climbing legend Ron Fawcett, has won the 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.

Established in 1983, this prestigious international prize is presented by the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust, which promotes literature by providing an award to authors of literary works, the central theme of which is concerned with mountains.

Announcing the winner, chair of the judges Ian Smith commented of Rock Athlete: ‘This is an engaging portrait of an unassuming yet quite remarkable climber told with humility and frankness.’

Written with renowned journalist Ed Douglas, Rock Athlete offers a unique insight into the life and mind of one of Britain's most iconic and admired rock climbers. Rock Athlete is published by Vertebrate Publishing, Sheffield.

After the announcement, Ron commented: ‘I am absolutely gobsmacked! I never thought we could win it, and I certainly never saw this coming back when we started the book.’

Ed commented: ‘It was a genuine shock to win, but also immensely gratifying. It caps what has been an unequivocally fun project to work on, one which I hope has done Ron justice.’

The Boardman Tasker Prize commemorates the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker – outstanding mountaineers and accomplished authors – who disappeared together high on Everest in 1982. It is given to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature.

Buy Rock Athlete now from the BMC shop for a reduced price of £18 (BMC members price £16).

The four other books which made the shortlisted for the 2010 prize were:

• No Way Down by Graham Bowley - buy now
• The Hut Builder by Laurence Fearnley 
• Climbing Philosophy for Everyone by Stephen E Schmid (ed) - buy now
• Unjustifiable Risk? by Simon Thompson - buy now

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