Climbing Narcissist » Alpinist Magazine

What’s In The Mags: November 2010

Narc — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:19:00 +0000

Better late than never, here is November’s climbing magazine rundown. In addition to the usual suspects I included a recap of what was in the latest issue of Alpinist, a magazine I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading these past couple of years.

Rock & Ice # 190 – December 2010

Rock & Ice # 190 - December 2010

What’s on the cover:

Climbing on Colorado’s remote Crystal Tower – Photo by Keith Ladzinski

Other Notables:

Russ Clune talks about why Fat City Direct at the Gunks, NY is his favorite 5.10
Crossroads – Whitney Boland “recounts how getting caught in a flash flood gave her a new perspective on her life”
Ask the Coach – How to mentally train for climbing and how to train power
Ask Gear Guy – Tips for when to replace slings and quickdraws
Ask Dr. J – Returning to climbing after a broken back and other back strengthening exercises
What I’ve Learned – Interview with filmmaker Chuck Fryberger
Tuesday Night Bouldering looks at Project FAIL
Reviews of the books Skyscraperman, Expresso Lessons and With Bare Hands
Field Tested reviews of the Wild Country Rock Lite helmet, the RAB Xenon Jacket and the La Sportiva Katana Lace Rock Shoe

My Pick:

Blake Herrington’s article about the new routes going up in Red Rocks despite a bolting ban was certainly interesting to read and Nathan Smith’s story from Mongolia was pretty cool as well.

Climbing #290 – November 2010

Climbing #290 - November 2010

What’s on the cover:

Climbers near the summit of Chopicalqui in Peru – Photo by Alexandre Buisse

Other Notables:

Hot Flashes from Lincoln Lake and Greenland
Off The Wall – Climbing in Iraq and rebuilding the Snowbird Hut in Alaska
Ten Things you didn’t know about the Yosemite Search & Rescue team
Players Profile of Anthony Love
Tech tips on retreating in storms and rescue insurance
Classic Climbs - Black Dike (WI4/5 M3) on New Hampshire’s Cannon Cliff
Mileage – Adventure bouldering in Columbia, CA
Perspective piece on Kurt Albert

My Pick:

As an Everest history buff I have a soft spot for anything about the “old days” on Mt. Everest, so Martin Gutmann’s article about Maurice Wilson’s ill-fated attempt to climb the Big E back in 1933 was a must read for me.

Alpinist 32 – Autumn 2010

What’s on the cover:

Robert Jasper on Monte Sarmiento’s west summit – Photo by Ralf Gantzhorn

Other Notables:

Letters about the Cerro Torre controversy
First Ascent – Doug Chabot draws inspiration fr0m Alex Lowe to finish a project
Full Value – Phil Broscovak experiences one of his “wildest wild hairs” attempting a first winter ascent in Colorado’s Black Canyon
Local Hero – Blake Herrington profiles Cascades local Jens Holsten

My Pick:

As usual Alpinist delivers a ton of content, something that I found quite difficult to summarize here. It really is a must read if you have any interest in the type of traditional rock climbing or alpine type stories they cover.

From this current issue Colin Haley’s story about his new route on Mt. Foraker and the type of risks he is taking was really quite moving. Definitely check that out.

Urban Climber #44 – November 2010

Urban Climber #44 - November 201

What’s on the cover:

Pete Vintoniv taking a whipper in Nevada – Photo by Andrew Burr

Other Notables:

Profiles of Armin Buchroithner, Neely Quinn, Jonny Hork, Phil Schaal, Jeremy Collins and Jacinda Hunter
411 on 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell
Staying fit for climbing through “proper protein intake”
Plastic Paradise – Denver Bouldering Club

My Pick:

Well, for whatever reason my copy of Urban Climber never arrived by the time I wrote this summary so I can’t comment much on the issue. I did page through it at the gym and the Sawtooths bouldering article looked cool and the climbing quiz had a few questions that even I didn’t know the answer to.

What’s In The Mags: November 2010 from Climbing Narcissist

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Ad Blackout

Narc — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:05:44 +0000

The excellent blog ClimbingHouse.com recently took a look at the ad content in 3 of the major U.S. climbing magazines (Climbing, Rock & Ice and Dead Point Magazine). While not a new topic per se, they were able to put a cool twist on the subject by going through a recent issue of DPM and blacking out all the ads:

Blackout from Climbing House on Vimeo.

In a followup post, ClimbingHouse compared the percentage of ads (based on their criteria) in each of the 3 magazines with somewhat surprising results. Obviously ads are a necessary part of the magazine publication process, but I thought these were two interesting looks at the subject.

On a related note, alpinist Kelly Cordes recently posted some thoughts while reviewing latest issue of Alpinist that I thought were quite interesting:

…there must be something intrinsic to commitment that lends itself to great storytelling, which might explain why, unfortunately, virtually zero good literature exists about sport climbing/bouldering/cragging – not trying to rip on those crafts, fun as they are, utterly mind-blowing athletically at the high end, and much as I enjoy them. It seems it should create some good lit, though – unless I’m just missing it (along with the longtime climbing historians and literature buffs, and the book festival jurors) – surely similar attributes and drive exist among the dedicated. Hell, people live in their cars, make huge sacrifices, get maniacally obsessed with a little chunk of obscure stone, all in order to clip bolts and do boulder problems. Why the lack of great writing? Surely they’re not all illiterate. Hell, brain-damaged alpinists manage to write historically great mountain literature.

Despite the fact that I enjoy reading (and writing) about the latest and greatest high end rock climbing news, quality literature (as Cordes puts it) on the subject does seem to be lacking of late in the magazines. I can’t remember the last time I read an issue of DPM, Climbing, Urban Climber or R&I more than once, and lately I’ve been mostly skimming the articles whenever the mags come in the mail. Contrast that with a magazine like Alpinist that it takes literally weeks to read with all the excellent articles. In the year I’ve been a subscriber to Alpinist I’ve already gone back and re-read parts of all the issues. Then again, Alpinist costs almost twice as much to get half the issues of the other mags.

This brings me to something I’ve given major thought to of late. I currently have subscriptions to Alpinist, R&I, Urban Climber and Climbing with 1 of the 4 seemingly up for renewal every couple of months. For years I’ve just blindly renewed them, but that may be changing very soon.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the climbing magazine industry? Is there one magazine you feel has quality articles that I might be missing? If you could only subscribe to one magazine, which one would it be? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Alpinist #26 Coming Soon

Narc — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:31:17 +0000

According to UKClimbing the recently revived Alpinist Magazine shipped comeback issue # 26 earlier this week. It should be very interesting to see what shows up in our mailboxes. Alpinist #26 Coming Soon from Climbing Narcissist Become a fan of ClimbingNarc.com on Facebook Related posts: Alpinist Magazine Coming Back In March Alpinist Magazine’s Assets For [...]

Alpinist #26 Coming Soon from Climbing Narcissist

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Alpinist Magazine Coming Back In March

Narc — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:41:36 +0000

You might be asking yourself why I continue to post about a climbing magazine like Alpinist that so few people cared about it went out of business. It’s a good question, but I find the Alpinist saga to be rather fascinating…and I have an expensive 4 issue subscription with 3 issues still owed to me. Plus the magazine happened to be quite good.

Given the dismal state of the economy and the the fact that Alpinist’s prior business model wasn’t all that successful, most people weren’t sure what to make of the recent news that Alpinist’s assets were purchased by the publishers of Backcountry Magazine. I think the conventional wisdom was that there was no way Alpinist would be back in its previous form, but via Dougald MacDonald’s blog comes word that the new publishers intend to bring it back mostly unchanged:

Jeffersonville, Vermont—January 16, 2009—Height of Land Publications (HOL), owners of Backcountry and Telemark Skier Magazines, closed on a deal today that lays the groundwork for the resurrection of Alpinist Magazine.

Alpinist, a premium quarterly celebrating mountaineering and the climbing life, closed its doors this fall, just prior to the release of Issue 26. The new owners, HOL, plan to release Issue 26 on March 1, and will honor all current subscriptions.

“Alpinist fits perfectly into our family,” says HOL president and publisher Jon Howard. “We feel climbers, mountaineers, and backcountry and freeheel skiers all share the same DNA. It’s, at times, about being bold; at times about being cautious. Kind of like how we do business.”
And at HOL, they feel it’s a great time to be bold.

Jon and HOL partner and Backcountry editor Adam “Howie” Howard are currently in negotiations with the editorial staff at Alpinist to determine who will be at the helm.

“We’ve asked Christian Beckwith to stay on as Editor,” Adam says. “I reached him in Mexico where he’s doing some non-profit work. After seven years of grinding, he’s enjoying some relative downtime. But he’s genuinely excited that we’re carrying his creation forward. We’ll be meeting in person in the next few weeks. Should he not come on full time, Alpinist readers can be assured that someone of comparable skills and pedigree will fill his shoes.”

Readers can also look forward to the same quality of paper and a large format size.

“We want to honor what the Alpinist team has done,” Jon says. “It’s a piece of art. And we plan keep it that way.”

Stay tuned to Backcountrymagazine.com and Alpinist.com for more information.

Seems like good news for anyone with any outstanding subscription!

Alpinist Magazine Coming Back In March from Climbing Narcissist

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Cult Followings Not Paying Off Like They Used To, Alpinist Magazine Sold For $71K

Narc — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:03:38 +0000

You’ll remember that Alpinist Magazine folded in October of 2008 after their business model came crashing down as the overall economy went in the tank. After apparently dumping over $2,000,000 into the magazine with no profits to speak of, investor Marc Ewing had had enough and the magazine’s assets were put up for sale. I mentioned in yesterday’s News & Notes rundown that Alpinist (and all its assets) was recently sold at auction for $71,000.

Yesterday, Dougald MacDonald reported a rumor that Alpinist’s assets were won at auction by Height of Land Publications, the company that publishes magazines like Backcountry. Via the Outside Blog comes confirmation that this rumor is apparently true:

Alpinist, a 9,000-circulation quarterly about alpine-style mountain climbing which ceased publication in October, has been sold. According to a source, the six-year-old, high-gloss, high production-value magazine with a small but passionate community of climbers, was sold via a “live phone auction” for—wait for it—$71,000.

…

That a magazine with a passionate fanbase and multiple (albeit not yet profitable) platforms is sold for less than six figures—and does so over the phone—is scary, and says more about the state of print than many publishers would care to admit.

It is still to soon to get any sense of what the plans are for whatever is left of Alpinist. If past history is any indication, HOLP bought Coulier magazine in 2007 and simply folded it into their existing Backcountry publication. This seems unlikely to work with Alpinist as it was a fairly unique product, so it should be interesting to see what happens.

You can read the full story here.

Cult Followings Not Paying Off Like They Used To, Alpinist Magazine Sold For $71K from Climbing Narcissist

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News & Notes: 1/6/2009

Narc — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:18:05 +0000

Now that the 2 day work weeks are over and the normal grind resumes for the foreseeable future, it is time fore more climbing news & notes to pass your day with:

In Bishop Shawn Diamond put up a new terrifying looking V11 highball called Luminance, Alex Johnson climbed Evilution (V10) to the lip, Matt Wilder climbed the highball Evilution Direct (V11) and Tim Clifford and Matt Wilder both repeated The Swarm (V14).

Shawn Diamond climbing Luminance

Photo: Wills Young

Adam Ondra recently repeated (2nd ascent?) Francois Legrand’s route Robi In The Sky (5.14d) at Les Calanques, France. Legrand first opened the route back in 1999, adding 100 feet of steep climbing to an existing 5.13d. Speaking of Francois Legrand…
Matt Segal has been exploring the bouldering potential near Chihuahua, Mexico. Despite a bit of choss he is finding good rock with lots of potential.

Photo: Matt Segal

I can’t say that I understand many of the words in this post from Michael Fuselier on the bouldering in Tuzgle, Argentina, but the pictures look amazing!
UKClimbing recently did a series of year in review articles to close out 2008. Of particular interest to my audience would be the bouldering article written by Ty Landman. There were also reviews done for sport climbing, trad climbing, alpine climbing and female achievements.
My Five Ten Camp 4 shoes have been holding up great, but this article on how to reinforce a pair of flagging approach shoes looks to be very helpful if/when your shoes start to wear down.
Via Allclimbing & GetOutdoors comes word that the assets for Alpinist Magazine were sold for $71,000. Whether or not that ends being a bargain or a huge rip-off remains to be seen.
This story about an accident that took place in Colorado’s Garden of the Gods is another a good reminder that you can’t always trust the fixed gear you find.
Congratulations to the Red River Gorge Climber’s Coalition for a hugely successful 2008 in which they raised over $74,000 to help ensure future access to areas like the Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve.

News & Notes: 1/6/2009 from Climbing Narcissist

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Alpinist Magazine’s Assets For Sale

Narc — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:32:34 +0000

As expected, the assets of the recently shutdown Alpinist Magazine are now for sale:

On October 22, 2008, Alpinist LLC made an assignment of all of its assets for the benefit of creditors under Illinois law to the Trustee/Assignee Robert Handler of Commercial Recovery Associates. An Assignment for the Benefit of the Creditors is analogous to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Trustee/Assignee is obligated to sell Alpinist’s assets in order to raise the highest amount possible for Alpinist’s creditors. Commercial Recovery will entertain all reasonable offers including bulk and lot sales of assets, which assets include the company’s magazine, subscriber lists, website, film festival and trademarks.

Given the current economic situation, it should be interesting to see if anyone steps in to buy any or all of Alpinist’s 8,500 magazine subscribers, 300,000 page views a month website or their film festival. What remains to be seen is how much a future owner would be willing to stick with Alpinist’s now failed business model, and whether or not an increased amount of advertising would damage Alpinist’s “super-premium brand”.

I myself wouldn’t mind buying into a couple hundred thousand of their monthly pageviews…

Alpinist Magazine’s Assets For Sale from Climbing Narcissist

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Climbing Narcissist » Alpinist Magazine

What’s In The Mags: November 2010

Rock & Ice # 190 – December 2010

What’s on the cover:

Featured Articles:

Other Notables:

My Pick:

Climbing #290 – November 2010

What’s on the cover:

Featured Articles:

Other Notables:

My Pick:

Alpinist 32 – Autumn 2010

What’s on the cover:

Featured Articles:

Other Notables:

My Pick:

Urban Climber #44 – November 2010

What’s on the cover:

Featured Articles:

Other Notables:

My Pick:

Ad Blackout

Alpinist #26 Coming Soon

Alpinist Magazine Coming Back In March

Cult Followings Not Paying Off Like They Used To, Alpinist Magazine Sold For $71K

News & Notes: 1/6/2009

Alpinist Magazine’s Assets For Sale