A PhD student in Polar Studies has scooped an adventure literature award for a book blending his life story with an exploration of climate change in Alaska.
Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival in Alberta, Canada, selected Ben Weissenbach’s memoir, North to the Future: An Offline Adventure Through the Changing Wilds of Alaska (Grand Central, 2025), for its 2026 Adventure Travel Award.
Ben began his PhD in 2023 as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and he also holds a St John’s College Benefactors’ Scholarship.
“Banff is a Mecca for outdoor literature. To be part of this year’s festival, let alone to receive this award, is a great honour,” he said.
Judges at the festival, which is run by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, described North to the Future as: ‘A stunning exploration of youth, our changing climate, and the impact the digital world has on us all. Beautifully written and impressively researched, Weissenbach weaves science with memoir in what will surely become a classic in the genre.’
Ben is a journalist and writer from Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at Princeton, he used his vacations to shadow scientists in Alaska, visiting the largest glaciers in the American Arctic, living off-grid in winter to research permafrost, and walking and packrafting across the Brooks Range to study the boreal forest’s poleward migration.
In North to the Future he recounts a scientific, philosophical, and attentional journey to understand how one of the fastest-warming corners of the planet is changing. It won the National Outdoor Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Science Books of 2025 by Smithsonian Magazine.
The 51st Festival in Banff runs from 31 October to 8 November and brings stories of adventure and exploration from around the world to Banff. The festival features guest speakers, films from around the world, talks and exhibitions.
The awards will be presented at a presentation at the festival on Thursday 5 November when the Grand Prize Award Winner will be revealed.
