John Geiger was presented with the 2009 Stefansson Medal by Explorers Club vice-president Joseph Frey at a ceremony in Toronto on October 31, 2009. The medal, from The Explorers Club in Canada, was given to honour "an outstanding contribution to the history of exploration." Frey praised The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible, as an important contribution to exploration literature and noted its international impact. The book documents historical, as well as numerous contemporary examples of the Third Man phenomenon among explorers.

The medal is named in honour of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist who served as president of the Explorers Club from 1919-1922, and 1937-1939. The Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its inception in 1904, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide. For more information about The Explorers Club, visit the Club's Canadian chapter website, or the website of The Explorers Club's New York headquarters.