About:

A tour of the high peaks of the Moon - a futuristic fantasy; featuring Freya Dobbin's original musical score.

Did you you know that - due to meteor impacts and no erosion - that there are huge mountains on the moon, some that are higher than on Earth? In 2122, we'll board the last of Greyhound's space bus moon tours, and visit all the prominent peaks on the moon. Buckle up, sit back, relax, and watch it all from the comfort of our coach.

Watch:

Vimeo

About:

A parable of life.

Everyone starts as a child, running through the gates of the big experience, eager to get ahead, push ahead, and see what is coming. A few, curious and impatient, climb to see what's ahead. From above, they can see everyone's destiny.

Watch:

Vimeo

About:

A young mountaineer races against a swift challenger to claim a dangerous first ascent.

Made in virtual LEGO, this popular film screened at festivals around the world.

Watch:

Vimeo

About:

An explorer looks back on her life to realize what she has always been searching for.

Based on an "old tale" as related by Pierre Burton, this film recounts the search that all explorers undergo, and the realization at the end of the search.

Watch:

Vimeo

About:

A trail crew working down in Kananaskis catch sight of a mysterious mountain in a storm, and set off to rediscover the legend of two high peaks - the tallest on the continent - marked on all the old maps, that guards a mythical pass.

Reviews:

Globe and Mail

Goodreads

"With this powerful and highly poetic first novel Jerry Auld achieves a new peak in the literary interpretation of the nature, history and culture of the mountain West. It is a book about the power of maps and dreams that explores our relationship to gravity and ghosts, rock, water and place with an ending that will leave you breathless." -- Robert William Sandford

A highly technically accomplished mountaineering novel with a clever plot-line and convincing characters. -- Adjudication Jury, Boardman-Tasker Award 2009

"Like a polished stone, Hooker & Brown reveals layers of time, meaning and beauty." -- -- Thomas Wharton, author of Icefields

Awards:

Boardman-Tasker Award, U.K. (Shortlist)

Banff Mountain Book Festival (Shortlist)

About:

33 really short tales - some a page, most six or seven - that look at mountains from all different viewpoints and ages; from madmen on diamox, to romantic shoe merchants, from religious adherents, to the wild beasts: all sense the call of the peaks.

Reviews:

“These are no ordinary mountain stories: they are tales of the mystery that lies at the heart of ascent. And not just the ascent of the rock climber and alpinist, but the ascent of the monk, the stone mason, the goat, the cobbler and the office worker. In his magic way, Jerry Auld reveals the secrets of our need to reach for something intangible, something sacred, something forbidden.” -- Chic Scott, Mountaineer and Historian

Awards:

Banff Mountain Book Festival (Shortlist)

About:

Ravi moved to the Rocky Mountains in search of the woman of his dreams—and a beaver. For Ravi, playing jazz trumpet is a calling. He prefers to think that life has guidelines with no set rules, a musical chart that gives everyone the freedom to riff across the form. Others disagree.

Deep in the labyrinth of service tunnels beneath the Banff Springs Hotel, events set in motion with the first, fire-ravaged foundations threaten to throw everyone into a hellish trap. Ravi, an unwitting participant, must stop the whole demonic orchestra or lose the only one left in the world that he loves.

About:

Eight residents of a former-mining town turned mountain tourist attraction each have big dreams for their lives. But the town is not big enough for all of them.

A fast-paced ride through the dreams and fears of residents clinging white-knuckled to the careening mine-cart that is their rapidly changing town; and how they will do anything to stay, and how they will undermine others to get what they need.

A story about Canmore, from the modern forces that create tension to the historical mines that run underneath; this is a satirical take on how the various residents fight for what they want and how unintended and natural forces tend to upend the best laid plans.

Buy:

Available June 2024, only in Canmore

It is always a thrill to get a stories published by one of the highest quality and beautifully designed magazines in the business. Their editorial standards have helped me improve significantly as a writer, as often stories take 10 - 16 drafts to get correct.

Stories by issue:

• #22 (Winter 2007)
     - Vanishing Point
• #24 (Summer 2008)
     - Say the Words
• #25 (Autumn 2008)
     - Fulcrum
• #28 (Autumn 2009)
     - Last Ascent
• #30 (Spring 2010)
     - Heaven
• #35 (Summer 2011)
     - Brewer's Buttress Pointilism
• #38 (Spring 2012)
     - Short Talk with Long Axe
• #42 (Spring 2013)
     - Invisible Mountains
• #46 (Spring 2014)
     - The Raven's Wager
• #54 (Summer 2016)
     - Hooker & Brown
• #61 (Spring 2018)
     - Under Pulse
• #63 (Autumn 2018)
     - Dethroned
• #74 (Summer 2021)
     - Summit Register on Tabula Rasa
• #77 (Spring 2021)
     - The Impious Alpinist
• #78 (Summer 2022)
     - The Auld Campbell Bothy
• #80 (Winter 2022)
     - Gravity is No Joke

Lost Obelisks of the Rockies:

I have often noticed the big concrete obelisks that mark the provincial boundary between Alberta and B.C.. But looking at the rare maps from that survey indicated that there should be some on the summits of the great divide ridges as well.

I went hiking up to some, but only saw 100 year old cairns. Carefully displacing some stones, I found the obelisks: small brass versions with the orientation stamped in the sides - the exact spot to plant the theodolite for the next triangulation 100 years before.

I wrote this story like a lost mystery, as these markers have been forgotten, and sit untouched for over a century, directly by the hands of the surveyors that laid them and delineated our province.

It was an honour and a thrill to see this story win the award for the best short magazine article published in Alberta for the year 2021.

Being able to focus on Canadian mountaineering stories, from the first ascents to the worst ascents, brings more meaning to the routes we walk. There is a treasure trove of tales in our own backyard, and we need to be better at telling our own history, or else risk forgetting it or having it told by someone else with an agenda.

Stories:

• The Agony
     (Mrs. Stone's ordeal on Mt. Eon)
     vol 91, 2008
• Walking Stick on Spiral Road
     (the disputed first ascent of Robson)
     vol 92, 2009
• Clouds as Tall as Mountains
     (Hooker & Brown excerpt)
     vol 93, 2010
• Disbelief
     (the first ascent of Ha Ling Peak)
     vol 97 2014

About:

Back in '95 I was writing a lot of short stories, trying to find my voice, and travelling all over the world.

My friend Derek Mah, who is an exceptional artist, shared my love of graphic novels. I was in India, travelling alone for a year, trying to figure out how to write a novel and at times feeling really far away from my friends. This was, of course, pre-internet. So I wrote this story on the back of an old map and mailed it to Derek.

This is what he had done with it by the time I got home.

Read:

Read the comic.

Kickstarter and First Print Run!

After four years of early morning focus, I have the ninth draft off to copy edit and the cover art underway. What started as an amusing anecdote of prescribed burns in Canmore clearing out the empty neighbourhoods of gigantic second homes 16 years ago, has slowly morphed into a novel about the tensions and pressures that small mountain towns are under and the eclectic cast of characters that inhabit them.

This is a satirical novel about small towns and big dreams, and no space left for them.

Eight diverse residents of this small mining town turned expensive tourist attraction fight to realize their dreams, even as the town is not big enough for all of them, and they must undermine each other to stay on top.

As of April 7^th, 2024, order your signed and numbered copy at my Kickstarter.

What?@!

Each year the Alberta Magazine Publisher's Association nominates and votes on the best articles for the year. I was surprised to have my story - that was written for the Canadian Rockies Annual, a beautiful publication based in Banff - selected for the short-list in the Short Feature category.

I find it curious that when we are young these awards would mean the moon and I would hang on the announcements, but as I get older, I realize they are out of my control (all I can do is write the most interesting and engaging story I can) and I just get on with the work (too many projects, never enough time).

On top of that, there were eight other nominees that were all heavy-hitters and any one of them I would have easily guessed would take the cake. In fact, it made the short-list even more satisfying seeing the quality of the competition. My work has been short-listed occasionally, even for some very prestigious awards, but I've never won.

Until now. What an honour and surprise! I only wish the ceremony was in-person and not virtual.

About:

In 2009, I wanted to host a book reading in Canmore but make it more interesting and engaging. For some time, readings in bookstores (despite their great efforts) have been poorly attended. I chalk this up to so many competing avenues for our attention. It certainly seemed that writers needed to up their game.

Over seven years, one night in March hosted six authors: three fiction and three non-fiction, each paired with one of six wines: three red and three white. We brought 42 authors and their books to packed crowds and each one was a memorable night. The pressures of financing the wine, finding an appropriate venue, and then Covid, put an end to this fun.

I hope to bring this event back in the near future, with a different model. Perhaps a ticketed event where the ticket can be exchanged for a book. Stay tuned....

Timeline:

Formed in 2012 by Dustin Lynx in Canmore, IMS took on my second book as their first project. Coming onboard afterwards to keep this great idea going, I got the opportunity to edit, do layout, publish, and market books by Jeff Long, David Smart, David Stevenson, and Mike Lauchlan.

"Letters from Chamonix" by David Stevenson won the Fiction and Poetry prize at the Banff Mountain Book and Film festival, in one of many highlights for the company.

By 2017, IMS rested completely on my shoulders as others had moved to other projects. This proved to not be a one-man job, and with a young family, I had to shut the doors. I remain very proud of the books we published, and the fact that our arrangement was always a 50/50 split with the authors, who received far more than a traditional publishing deal, and we were never in the red. IMS closed with a small profit. One day, it will rise again.