To Be a Warrior: The Adventurous Life and Mysterious Death of Billy Davidson

Description

KEY SELLING POINTS: Billy Davidson astounded the climbing community in the Yosemite Valley by making an early ascent of North America Wall on El Capitan in 1970, along with numerous first ascents back in Alberta: CMC Wall (1972), Yellow Edge (1974) on Yamnuska, Iron Suspender on Wakonda Buttress (1971), and the north face of Gibraltar Mountain (1971). The story of Billy "Kayak Bill" Davidson spans two western Canadian provinces (AB and BC) and two extreme outdoor lifestyles (mountaineering and solo sea kayaking). For the past 15 years, Brandon has been working on the "Billy Book", garnering a great deal of online interest and anticipation within the mountaineering and sea kayaking communities. He was a living legend to many in the climbing world before he walked away from his mountaineering life in Calgary and headed to British Columbia to live a hermetic life along the central coast (Bella Bella). Billy spent 30 years as a hermit on the west coast, where he became a much-loved painter and a legendary paddler, whose routes and camps are still used and visited by adventuring kayakers to this day. Based on hundreds of personal journal entries from when Billy was in high school to his final days, the book will be an insight into one of the most interesting outdoor figures in western Canada over the past 50 years. Brandon Pullan is the Editor of Gripped - Canada's Climbing Magazine and a well-known outdoor journalist. MARKETING + PROMOTION: National, regional and subject-specific print features, excerpts, review coverage, broadcast and television interviews Social media campaigns, blogger outreach, digital collateral for online use Publicity and promotion in conjunction with author's speaking engagements Outreach to subject-specific organizations, markets and festivals Excerpts available Electronic ARCs Electronic blads

Brandon Pullan was born and raised in Ontario and is a graduate of Lakehead University. He started writing for publications in the late '90s and is now editor-in-chief of Gripped, Canada's Climbing Magazine. He has over 100 published articles in print, and countless contributions by him can also be found online. His alpine pursuits have introduced him to dozens of legendary climbers and mentors, motivating him to compile and archive collections of stories from this older generation of mountaineering greats. Brandon is the author of The Bold and Cold: A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies and To Be a Warrior: The Adventurous Life and Mysterious Death of Billy Davidson, as well as the co-author of Northern Stone: 50 of Canada's Best Rock Climbs. He lives in Canmore, Alberta.

Praise for To Be a Warrior: "One of the best biographies of a Canadian climber I've read. A deeply researched, compassionate and knowledgeable exploration of the life of one of Canada's most enigmatic climbers." -David Smart, author of Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites (Banff Mountain Book Award, 2020); Paul Preuss: Lord of the Abyss (shortlisted by both Banff and Boardman Tasker, 2019); and A Youth Wasted Climbing "If ever there was a more enigmatic figure in the Canadian climbing and paddling world, it would have to be Billy Davidson. Artist, hermit, survivalist, Billy quietly forged his own trail, from the beer-soaked tables in the dive frequented by the Calgary Mountain Club in the early '70s, to the storm-ravaged shores of unnamed islets on BC's wild Pacific coast. For those lucky enough to have known Billy, this book is a fitting legacy to his extraordinary life." -Pat Morrow, mountaineer, filmmaker, photographer, environmental advocate, coauthor of Searching for Tao Canyon "A fascinating story and a beautiful tribute to Billy Davidson, a remarkable man who chose to follow his own path." -Chic Scott, award-winning author of Pushing the Limits; Powder Pioneers; Deep Powder and Steep Rock: The Life of Mountain Guide Hans Gmoser and numerous bestselling guidebooks such as Summits and Icefields 1 and Summits and Icefields 2 (both with Mark Klassen) and Ski Trails in the Canadian Rockies (with Darren Farley) "To Be a Warrior: The Adventurous Life and Mysterious Death of Billy Davidson delivers more than the promise of its subtitle. In researching the life of one man, Pullan has managed to illuminate the early days of the CMC and the grit of those climbers who adventured up Yamnuska when it was a mostly blank canvas in the sky. As Pullan tracks Billy from the orphanage to the Rockies to the wild coast of British Columbia the portrait that emerges is of an iconoclastic visionary, someone we now know we would have loved to have met." -David Stevenson, author of Letters from Chamonix (Banff Mountain Book Award, 2014), Warnings Against Myself: Meditations on a Life in Climbing and the novel Forty Crows as well as numerous articles in Ascent, Alpinist, Isotope, Weber Studies, Cimmaron Review, and the American Alpine Journal, where he has been the book review editor for many years "Bold, enigmatic and fiercely individual people make the most fascinating characters to read about. Even better when the author shares those traits of boldness and individuality in addition to the sensitivity and passion required to write a book worthy of their subject. With To Be a Warrior, Brandon Pullan has achieved a book that honestly and justly captures the spirit of Billy Davidson's life." -Lynn Martel, author of Stories of Ice, Tales and Trails and Expedition to the Edge "To Be a Warrior immerses readers deep within the vivid inner and outer worlds of Billy Davidson - from mountains and islands to paintings and journals - evoking the sense of continual seeking that once ran through the existence of a talented and mysterious climber and that persists through many human lives. At once profoundly researched and fluidly written, the resulting book represents literary mountaineering journalism at its best." -Katie Ives, editor-in-chief of Alpinist and author of Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams