Welcome back Alpinist
Alpinist #0 debuted in the Autumn of 2002 as an archival quality magazine covering world alpinism and adventure climbing. Its uncompromising emphasis on self sufficient, fast, light, clean ascents – known as ‘alpine style’ climbing – manifested itself perfectly in the presentation of the publication. From the articles, to the layouts, to the photography. Almost without exception, each issue of Alpinist was aesthetically stunning… the beautifully clean presentation was, in a way, a representation of everything it had hoped to highlight and encourage about alpine climbing.
The covers were hard to miss in magazine racks. I remember looking forward to grabbing a new one whenever I would find myself in an REI or EMS. When feeling particularly poser-ish I would pretend I had some real connection to the content. But for the most part I would buy the magazine to day dream about the lives and experiences of these world class alpinists, and to appreciate the artistic lens with which it was all captured.
However, I long wondered how Alpinist was surviving. It was one of the thickest, most sophisticated publications I had seen. It seemed like it cost a fortune to produce, yet it had limited advertising (a design decision). Plus its reader base, which seemed like it would be small to begin with, at least partially consisted of starving, range hopping, climbers – not the sort to spend a lot of money on subscriptions. Attempts were made to expand the Alpinist brand beyond just the magazine, but apparently these efforts were not enough.
Alpinist folded in 2008.
An important voice in the climbing community was gone and arm chair explorers like me lost one of the best windows we had into the world of true adventure. Almost more disappointing was that on some level Alpinist represented an experiment in producing a product with artistic priorities, dedicated to the purest of ethics (both of its subject, and of itself), and firewalled from commercialization. These are values I appreciate and respect. And that experiment had failed.
But happily, this story wasn’t meant to end there. In January it was confirmed that Height of Land Publications (an independent publisher of Backcountry and Telemark Skier) had purchased Alpinist’s assets, and on March 16th they announced that Michael Kennedy (of Climbing Magazine fame) would be coming on as Editor in Chief to relaunch the publication.
The first new issue, issue 26, was supposed to be released April 15th. But I was not a subscriber and have not been near an outdoor retailer’s magazine rack lately. However, I am excitedly looking forward to the continuation of this publication and am interested to see how much things will change. You can expect some issue reviews as I get them.
Welcome back Alpinist!
