The Climbing Mags Today - A review

[Dru]

CLIMBING and ROCK AND ICE have both gone downhill since the ownership switxch. I think Climbing is doing a bit better, though. The articles atre at least somewhat interesting. R&I has too much boring topos for routes i have either done or will never do, and way too many pages of Tech Tips that are ho hum ("How to Use a GriGri") zzzzz. R&I is at least 50% recycled these days. Climbing has some good articles but has slimmed down too much. It needs to get back to being a thick rag full of features like it was in the Mike Kennedy days. Youve got to wonder though, how they can slag of other chipped areas but say Rifle is one of the best? Its a drill fest too.

 

Alpinist could be good but needs to find its focus and also recycle less stuff like all those Kennan Harvey and Stevie Haston pictures I have already seen 3x over. Also, HOW DARE THEY print Tami Knight text (without Tami spelling) and have some generic, unfunny guy like Jeremy Collins illustrate! Hell thats like having Walt Disney illustrate a text by Picasso.

 

GRIPPED mag has come on a bit, its no longer a rag I wouldnt wipe my bum with. the last few issues have been ok. it still has the most sycophantic gear reviews on the planet, and suffers cause it wont pay for good articles if it can run some vanity press piece instead.

 

CLIMBER, HIGH MTN SPORTS and ON THE EDGE are all British. Climber has come on and lately has been the best of the 3 (its the only one of the 6 listed you cant get at MEC. I buy mine at Chapters). OTE is too Sheffield oriented, but has fun Duncan Bourne cartoons. HMS has Mountain Info which is like the best opart of Alpinist (the new routes section) as a monthly. All three suffer from having "my summer holiday" articles which is a crag feature where a correspondant goes to a foreign place, comes back and says "This crag is good.We did this route. This other route is hard." I mean its like having someone read a guidebook to you at a slide show. ZZZZZ aside from that though... you need to know what Abseiling and Krabs are and how to translate E3 5c to 11a R.

 

ROCK is an Australian magazine. It is the most insular, head-up-the-bum magazine i have ever read. Features pictures of people with helmets and every new route the editor has ever put up (grungy 5.8 10m high piles etc.) & so on. Good photos (Simon Carter) but only read it if you are planning on visiting OZ, or you are already there.

 

 

[mattp]

Thanks, Dru. Have you ever read Outside Magazine? A guy I share an office with keeps suggesting that I subscribe.

[Greg_W]

Thanks, Dru. Have you ever read Outside Magazine? A guy I share an office with keeps suggesting that I subscribe.

 

Outside sucks, speaking from a climbing perspective.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Thanks, Dru. Have you ever read Outside Magazine? A guy I share an office with keeps suggesting that I subscribe.

 

Outside Mag- the one that Krakauer used to print all kinds of erroneous, false and shitty info about Beckey and his way of life.

 

I guess it was part of his ride to the top before Everest books.

[cj001f]

Thanks, Dru. Have you ever read Outside Magazine? A guy I share an office with keeps suggesting that I subscribe.

 

Outside sucks, speaking from a climbing perspective.

Outside pretty much sucks from any perspective. (Unless your interested in $4k one week guided "adventure" vacations)

[Dru]

I agree, Outside sucks bag. Talk about spray and hype. There are what, like 50 pages of SUV ads and Polo Sport, before the first article? i guess it looks good in your Chevy avalanche, as you pretend you are interested in the outdoors. Funny that you would think I might like it when ive just finished a post in the literature thread slamming the "Outside Mag school of journalism"

 

Outside =

[bobinc]

Isn't it ironic how the ads often show the SUVs driven into a supposedly "roadless" area?

[sk]

I have yet to read an outdorsy type mag that I haven't thought sucked. granted I have not read them all

[mattp]

[JoshK]

Outside is the equivilant of men's health, IMHO.

[Lambone]

I don't think I have time to be addicted to CC.com, read climbing magazines, and actually climb. So the mags are out. Unless I'm on the shitter and just want to see some pretty pictures real quick!

 

Old mags do have some good refrences to areas and routes though.

[COL._Von_Spanker]

Outside is the equivilant of men's health, IMHO.

 

...But it had that dashing photo of Dean Potter shirtless on the cover recently, C'mon don't we all want to see topless dean potter photos? Outside has it's niche; which seem to be the weekend warrier, but not extreme type. The features are outdoor related, but much is within the grasp and capability of the 'average' outdoor enthusiast which probably makes up a large majority of it's readers and REI shoppers. Whereas most 'outdoor enthusiasts' probably can't relate to Alpinist.

 

and don't forget about backbacker!!!!

 

He does some sick shit, but I'm sick of hearing about him

 

Alpinist: I like the way the photo gallery section was layed out.

R&I: I read it a barnes and noble on my lunch break, so it don't bother me much since I'm not paying for it. I only look at the photo's anyway

Climbing: I read it a barnes and noble on my lunch break, so it don't bother me much since I'm not paying for it. I only look at the photo's anyway

 

 

MattP, it's funny when people that know a person climbs tries to relate to said person. I usually just nod my head and smile when discussing climbing with non-climbers.

 

[plexus]

I have to agree with Dru that the two main rags in the US are becoming more irrelevent for climbers outside of Colorado and California. There are hardly any interesting feature stories anymore and as one of my climbing parnters said one time, there is hardly anything about the alpine, except for those $20k himalaya trips.

 

Two things I have liked that R&I has done are the Climbing Accidents and also the classic faces part (kind a rehash of their three star feature).

 

What I liked but unfortunately was discontinuted was Pack & Paddle. It was a great source for some beta on obscure peaks and also road & trail conditions. Whatever happened to it? It seemed to disappear while I was living in Mexico.

[allthumbs]

The specialized magazines get to the point that they've discussed all the gear, all the climbs, all the hero's and heroine's, all the political issues and heated topics. We've all seen the same pictures a zillion times and other than the 'letters to the editor' section, there's not much new to talk or write about. It's called 'saturation', and it's running amuck in the climbing magazine business.

[gregm]

you know, as heinrich harrer once wrote, climbing just isn't much of a spectator sport. it seems like a lot of the climbing media we review here boils down to the same thing.

 

they used to have a couple climbing shows on OLN, but i've seen it go in a reality show direction now. yech.

[allthumbs]

So it goes.

[allison]

I liked those Dean Potter pictures very much. My dad takes Outside and I read it at his house.

 

DaveW and I got rejected for a piece on Darrington by both of the major US magazines. In fact I don't even think Climbing bothered to respond.

[catbirdseat]

Dru, bottom line, if you wanted to subscribe to one climbing magazine and you were an alpine rock and ice oriented climber from the PNW, which one would you pick? Or is the answer NONE?

[Cpt.Caveman]

Dru has 9 million journals and mags all over his living room. He must have been a subscriber or luccky benefactor at one time.

[leejams]

Have not run across the new alpine mag. Figured it would be in that mag shop on university ave as they have everything. But not there. Any suggestions?

[Dru]

I dont subscribe to any, I buy them at MEC, cause MEC gets them weeks before Canadian subscribers do.

 

If I was only gonna get one, I dunno. You have to read them all for a balanced view of whats going on. Like if you only read On TheEdge you might believe that Musashi is a pure rock route, and not know about the 8' ice roof and WI5 to finish it off, cause Stevie Haston is scared of it and so pretends its not really a mixed climb (hence unworthy of his atention) but a rock climb done with tools. Fact is it would kick his ass!

[glen]

Save your $15/yr and just pick up a copy of AAJ at a used bookstore. More pages, no ads and lots of good shiznit. But then again, I stopped reading the rags about 6 or 7 years ago and havn't looked back. I'd rather look at pics of friend's trips and hear the stories about moonlight ice climbs, blizzards in J Tree, epic Yosemite days and trips to the cascades, than read a mag about another V-32.74 problem in France or the like.

 

Shit, for the cost of a mag for a year, you can damn near get another guidebook and plan yourself a trip.

[Dru]

What I like about the British mags, is you can figure out lots of tricks for gear protected face climbs with double ropes, just by looking at the pictures. its funny to see someone actually leading with a rope clipped to a nest of 4 or 5 equalized RPs or to a taped down hook or whatever cause shots of trad climbing in American mags are almost always a splitter crack with cams every body length, or someone freeing an aid climb, or a runout bolted slab.

[cracked]

Too true. R&I sucks ass. The 'accidents' part are stupid, as anybody who is interested in that stuff buys ANAM anyways. The photos are good, but there is essentially no text, stories, etc, which sucks. Only good thing is that after the ownership switch, they quit printing faces of famous climbers on the covers. I am SO sick of faces, let's see some CLIMBING, people.

 

I have subscribed to Climbing for two years now. At first they had interesting articles about personal experiences, now they write bios on famous climbers that obviously don't come close to capturing the character of the person. The Steve House bio is a case in point, they describe him as a nice, shy, cautious guy, not the ambitious, risky, suffer-seeker that Twight and Backes describe. Also, their "tech tips" are becoming useless too. "How to keep from killing your climber with a Grigri", "How to place nuts in opposition", etc, are basic techniques taught in any how to climb book on the shelf. For a while they were even dumbing down sections of Extreme Alpinism for tech tips!

 

The equipment reviews in both mags are useless. Absolutely full of hype, no useful information whatsoever. High Mountain Sports' equipment reviews tend to be written by Andy Kirkpatrick, who doesn't spray, he obviously uses all the gear in tough conditions, then writes about how he felt the gear performed.

 

Mags suck, CC.com rules! Just as much spray, (plus it's personal), less hype about gear, and even photos! Who needs magazines? (Hey Lambone, try taking a laptop and a wireless internet connection to the shitter, to replace the magazine.)

[Cpt.Caveman]

glen alpine journals are great. I do like the Canadian AJ the best.