Celebrating The Sublime: Look Out Wins 2025 NZ Mountain Book Of The Year

Lake Wānaka, New Zealand (23 May 2025) – Euan Macleod and Craig Potton have been selected as the winners of the 2025 Nankervis/Bamford NZ Mountain Book of the Year  award for their book Look Out. The $2,000 grand prize is awarded in the NZ Mountain Book  Competition as part of the long-running NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival. 

Look Out is an artistic collaboration that celebrates the sublimity of New Zealand’s Southern Alps by these two well-known New Zealand artists. Two friends, painter Euan Macleod and  photographer Craig Potton, are both drawn to the high mountains around Aoraki/Mt Cook  in the central core of the Southern Alps of New Zealand.  

“Here is a mountain art book that is not over-endowed with words though there is a long  introductory essay to set the scene,” explains judge Marjorie Cook. The task for readers then is to observe and reflect on what stories could be revealed in mountain paintings  (MacLeod) and photographs (Potton). Such is the subjective nature of art, there is unlikely  to be just one story. One moment the mountains and the mountain men look murderously  scary, deathly and cold. Next, they appear soft, warm and comfortable.” 

“I thank the organisers of the NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival and am truly delighted  and grateful Euan and I have won the Mountain Book of the Year with Look Out,” says  Potton. He continues, “We have both gotten more than we will ever know from the  Southern Alps and even at our advanced ages we find ourselves at Aoraki, in the throne  room of the mountain gods, with the same awe, amazement and joy of the sublime that we  have felt from our first trips there so long ago. It was our hope that our art might convey  something of that connection to the mountain wilderness and your nod to our book has  vindicated that hope.”  

The overall prize for the Nankervis/Bamford NZ Mountain Book of the Year is awarded for a  book that brings the mountain experience into the hearts and minds of the reader and  leaves people with a knowledge of, and respect for, the place the mountains play in the  human and physical worlds. Potton explains that the award has a special meaning for him. 

“For me it is very special and poignant that this generous prize has been established as part  of the wonderful legacy my friend Nank bequeathed to our mountaineering community.  When first heading to the Southern Alps I was inspired by Nank and Dave Bamford’s forays  on the western side of the central Southern Alps when they were pushing up great original  lines. In those days it was the epitome of wilderness climbing. Nank became a friend,  opening my book launch and exhibition on my Nepal book and during my tenure on the 

Conservation Authority when he was serving on the Tongariro National Parks Board. We  frequently talked conservation issues. He knew the Conservation Act inside out and had  such a big heart for the places and people we were trying to protect …. a most likeable  humorous and generous man … To have won this award in honour of Nank’s legacy is a  highlight in my publishing path.”  

The Mountain Book Competition covers literature on the world’s remote places, expedition tales and stories about people and their adventures. Submissions were invited for two  categories: Mountain and Adventure Narrative for stories and accounts about specific  adventures (non-fiction); and Mountain and Adventure Heritage for guidebooks, coffee  table or picture books, history books, analyses, reflections on culture, environments or  ethics and advocacy.  

The Heritage Award goes to Kahurangi by Dave Hansford. The book is a celebration of the  biodiversity of Kahurangi National Park, Northwest Nelson and Golden Bay. Energised by  ancient, complex geology and a multitude of habitats, from vast beech stands to lush coastal  rainforest, from sprawling ramparts of karst and marble to extensive wetlands and  estuaries, this region holds the greatest variety of plants and animals in the country.  

“Hansford is simply a wonderful natural history writer,” says Cook. “His first sentence, his  first scene - detailing a paleolithic orgy of creatures forever fossilised in the act of getting it  on - is startling and memorable. Just a warning. This book is big, meaty, dense and packed  with knowledge and great images and photos. You will not be able to romp through it in one  sitting.” 

Hansford said, “It’s gratifying to hear that others see the same wonder, the same beauty,  the same lessons in Kahurangi that I see. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped me  tell this story; the scientists, the rangers, the volunteers, my publisher, my editor, my wife— but especially all those gifted photographers who crafted a sprawling wilderness into  exquisite pixels.” 

Andrew Fagan takes out the Narrative Award for his book Swirly World: Lost at Sea. Known  to many as the frontman of the iconic 1980s band The Mockers, Fagan has also carved a  distinct path as a solo sailor and author. In 1994 he set the record for the smallest sailing  boat to sail from New Zealand to Australia, and in 2007 his NZ circumnavigation via the  subantarctic Auckland Islands set the record for the smallest sailing boat to have done so.  

Swirly World: Lost at Sea documents his harrowing experiences and the psychological  challenges faced when confronting the vast, unpredictable power of the ocean. Judge  Marjorie Cook describes the book as “a love story to a boat not much bigger than a bathtub,  in which Fagan attempts to circumnavigate the globe. In delivering this very enjoyable book,  Fagan weaves together past and present sailing adventure stories while having another go  at "living the dream'', this time on a potent ocean of doubts. Expect to find lyrical sentences,  humour, self-depreciation, and attention to detail.”

Fagan said he was “totally flattered” by the award, describing it as an “unexpected  accolade!” He adds, “I’m looking forward to discussing the pleasures and pains of solo  offshore sailing at the festival.” 

Fagan and Hansford will be guest speakers at the NZ Mountain Book Festival in Wānaka in  June.  

Before selecting the winners of the 2025 NZ Mountain Book competition, the judges had a  difficult task narrowing the entries down to six finalists. 

Head judge Allan Uren said, “The lineup has been a real pick n mix, from surfing, skiing,  tramping, sailing, climbing, even a collection of guidebooks. Notable in its absence has been  pure mountaineering books. Maybe it’s becoming harder for mountaineering authors to  come up with anything new to say or ways to get across the essence of mountaineering.  Here’s hoping that’s not the case. 

“Production values have also been high, with dazzling photography. Some of the book  covers are things of such beauty that you’d want to display them as objects of art in their  own right.  

“Everybody always says it is difficult to pick a winner from such a high calibre of books and  that is true of this year’s collection. It’s unfortunate that a prize can’t be given to all the  authors for the amount of passion and work that obviously goes into each, and every book  judged. But it makes your spirit soar to know that there is such high standard of book being  produced and the festival is there to give them wings.” 

The 2025 finalists were: 

Mountain & Adventure Narrative Award 

Swirly World: Lost at Sea by Andrew Fagan 

Sam the Trap Man by Sam Gibson 

A Light Through the Cracks by Beth Rodden 

Mountain & Adventure Heritage Award 

Unbound: Volume 1 by Rambo Estrada 

Look Out by Euan Macleod and Craig Potton 

Kahurangi by Dave Hansford 

The following were Highly Commended by the judges: 

Northbound: Four Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa by Naomi Arnold

Southern Faces: An Introduction to Rock Climbing in Ōtepoti Dunedin by Riley Smith 

Fire & Ice: Secrets, Histories, Treasures and Mysteries of Tongariro National Park by Hazel  Phillips 

Ski Bum by Sam Masters 

The NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival will run in Wānaka from 20 to 24 June, in  Queenstown 26 to 27 June, and films will be online in NZ and Australia throughout July. The  festival’s literary events include guest speakers, author readings, book signings and book  launches.  

The full festival programme and tickets are available at mountainfilm.nz  

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