For Immediate Release

For Immediate Release

25 September 2008

Contact: Ken Driggers

(803) 771-0870

“Reel Action” Festival Hosting Award Winning Author, James Tabor

Columbia, SC – As part of the "Reel Action" Festival of Film and Outdoors, Palmetto Conservation and Doctors Care are hosting award winning author, James M. Tabor. Tabor’s book Forever on the Mountain was the Grand Prize Winner of The Banff Mountain Festival for 2007.

Tabor will speak at the kickoff event of the Reel Action Festival on Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 6:30 PM at The S.C. State Museum auditorium at 301Gervais Street in Columbia. A reception with cocktail and heavy hors d'oeuvres will follow his presentation. The cost is $25 per person. Copies of Forever on the Mountain will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

James M. Tabor is a former Contributing Editor to Outside magazine and SKI magazine. His work has appeared in Time, U.S. News, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, Reader's Digest, American Heritage, Barron's, The Washington Post and other national publications. Tabor was the writer and on-camera host of the popular national PBS series, The Great Outdoors. He is co-creator, writer and executive producer for the upcoming television series, Journey to the Center of the World, about caves worldwide.

FOREVER ON THE MOUNTAIN: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Disturbing Disasters is set in July, 1967 when seven young men - members of Joe Wilcox's twelve man expedition - died on Mt. McKinley, North America's highest peak. Ten days passed with no rescue attempt, while more than half an expedition was stranded and dying at 20,000 feet during a vicious Artic storm. The bodies were never recovered. And, for reasons that have remained cloudy, there was no proper official investigation of the catastrophe.

The book begins as a classic tale of men against nature, gambling - and losing - on one of the world's starkest and stormiest peaks. Reckoning by lives lost, it was history's third-worst mountaineering disaster when it occurred - but elements of finger pointing, incompetence, and cover-up make this disaster unlike any other. James M. Tabor draws on previously untapped resources: personal interviews with survivors and those involved in the aftermath, unpublished diaries and letters, and government documents. He consults not only mountaineers but also experts in disciplines including meteorology, forensics and psychology. What results is the first full account of the tragedy that ended a golden age in mountaineering.

Come and join us for this fun night in the kick off event for the “Reel Action” Festival of Film and Outdoors. Tickets will be $25.00 per person. Reservations required. For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, visit www.reelactionfestival.org or call (803)-771-0870.

The Palmetto Conservation Foundation is a statewide, non-profit membership organization based in Columbia, S.C. The group works to conserve important natural areas, preserve historic sites and promote outdoor recreation and active living on trails and greenways.

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