Legendary Canadian alpinist and mountain guide Barry Blanchard will be in Nelson on Wednesday, December 2, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. to share stories and photos from his new book, The Echo: Stories from the Edge of Survival.
During his 50-year career, Blanchard has climbed some of the world’s steepest and most technically complex glaciated peaks, pioneered countless new routes, worked in Hollywood films including K2, Cliffhanger, and The Vertical Limit, and mentored a new generation of alpinists.
The Echo, Blanchard’s second book, launched worldwide on October 2, 2026. His first, The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains (2014), received the Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and was a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Award. The Echo picks up where The Calling left off. It explores growing older in a pursuit defined by youth and risk, parenthood, mentorship, loss, and a life-changing accident that reset everything.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for a 7:00 p.m. showtime. The venue is the Sanctuary space inside the Nelson United Church, located at 602 Silica Street in Nelson. Books will be on sale before the presentation, with a book signing immediately following.
Tickets to this Nelson Adventure Speaker Series event are $10 each and are available for purchase on Zeffy by clicking here.
Ticket sale proceeds will go toward building the Cube 2.0—the first Olympic-standard climbing gym in the B.C. interior.
NASS is a non-profit endeavour, made possible by the Nelson community and like-minded local businesses and organizations. “An Evening with Barry Blanchard” is sponsored by Whitewater Mountain Resort, with support from The Adventure Hotel, Notably, a Book Lover’s Emporium, and Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.