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The Climbing Mags Today - A review


Dru

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Damn, you're a picky lot!

 

Both Climbing and R&I arrive in the Amazing househould mailbox, and both are, to varying degrees, enjoyed. R&I's new format IS a bit heavy on topos, accident reports, etc., but hopefully it's just a stumble while they get their shit in gear. Obviously neither mag has good content all of the time, but most of it is entertaining reading, and the news is nice, too. Yep, some people are actually interested in who sent what recently. Imagine that!

 

Outside isn't bad either (and also comes to the household). Yeah, they definitely overdo the travel features every month, but the other articles are good reads a lot of the time. They cover a pretty diverse amount of stuff, much of it quirky and thus interesting. The SUV and Polo ads are wack, but the world is full of Polo-clad doofuses rallying around in Excursiopeditioncruizers, so it's nothing new.

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How can you guys leave out Vbouldering? It's "hip", with snotty editors and writers who look down on roped climbing. I got an issue in my Christmas stocking from a well-meaning but clueless benefactor. It had a whole feature article on the hot issue of bringing your dog to the crags, er, boulders, as well as two pages on "First Aid Tips for Your Animals". "Subscribe, Bitch" taunted the subscription ad a few pages in. According to Heath, Pimp Daddy of Publishing, Vbouldering "ain't no corporate climbing rag". It sure is a badly-written climbing rag, though, with some cool photos here and there.

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You're right, in fact, as I was sitting in my living room last night, I smacked my head and said "I forgot Vbouldering!!" which is easy to do because reading it is like bouldering, no commitment and over fast. It is funny though. You aint gonna find stories of epics and suchlike in here but since it only comes out 4x a year its not that expensive to buy and you pick up all the latest California boulderdude slang. fruit.gif

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I gave up buying climbing mags a long time ago.

 

Too much spray, which I can get for free right here. Bored of the same pictures in the gallery section all the time.

 

Outside mag occasionaly has some good articles, but they aren't a climbin' rag. They have the best photo section of any outdoor mag though!

 

Tommy Caldwell wrapped in the US flag almost made me puke! Thanks R&I. I would say the same if it was Croft wrapped in the Maple Leaf.

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I gave up buying climbing mags a long time ago.

 

Too much spray, which I can get for free right here. Bored of the same pictures in the gallery section all the time.

 

Outside mag occasionaly has some good articles, but they aren't a climbin' rag. They have the best photo section of any outdoor mag though!

 

Tommy Caldwell wrapped in the US flag almost made me puke! Thanks R&I. I would say the same if it was Croft wrapped in the Maple Leaf.

 

Is that cause you spend all available money on ski mags??? wink.gif

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I definitly agree with everyone that most climbing/outdoor magazines really suck these days. I did like Alpinist, for the pictures, and a few of the articles. I also sort of like High Mountain Sports. Like everyone is saying they all have too many advertisemenst, especially that damn North Face Chevy Avalanche, it seems like tha ad is in every mag a couple times. And Outside really blows, the latest issues examplifies this.

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I'm not even really into surfing, but the best magazine out there is Surfer's Journal. It has long high-quality articles, unique and amazing photos. Interesting sections on off-beat topics like surfer-art. Not a bunch of spray about what the latest fab surfer idol ate for breakfast. As a whole it skips the hype and offers a true, down-to-earth, content oriented presentation.

I think most mags including Climbing and Cock & Lice talk down to the reader assuming you are a follow-the-crowd, worship the climbing idols poser. The mags drop more names than the MTV music awards. They just assume I want to go to the latesy Ouray Ice Fest stand around and socialize bullshit competition gathering. There needs to be a climbing mag that follows the Surfers Journal lead and focuses on content, the soul of the sport and not the hype.

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I have been getting the Canadian mag Explore recently (comes free with ACC membership), and find it quite entertaining. It's kind of like a Canadian Outside, but with less hype (still has some) and more humour. It seems to have a decent ratio of content:ads, which is my main criteria in a magazine (to see how bad it can get, check out Vogue sometime - 250 pages or so, with a content:ads ratio of about 1:20, I'd guess!)

 

The other mags have never gotten over the fact that people aren't that interested in hearing about hard climbing grades from professional climbers (especially sport, but equally true with bouldering and mixice routes now). Ok, maybe once a year it's interesting to hear about so and so repeating Musashi and Dreamtime and whatever, but it's so dull every month. It gets totally silly once you figure out that there are plenty of equally good climbers out there whom you don't hear about.

 

The alpine journals are better, but tackling the AAJ feels like work to me (obscure, thick, academic-sounding, reference-laden, etc.). I personally learn the most from reading ANAM...

 

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So, it's pretty damn easy to bag on the climbing rags- and fun too! But, if there were the 'ideal' magazine out there, what would you actually want to see? Something like Colin's Jberg TR? Maybe a good discussion of nutrition for alpine climbs? What kind of content would you want? HCL.gif

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i like reading the mags for all stuff

 

even though i am a gaper i like to read about hard sends cause it is inspiring

 

world cup is fun to follow

 

look at pictures of trad and figure out what gear is used

 

alpine stories

 

bouldering pictures

 

no good content about sport climbing except pictures of verdon etc are cool. or about someoneworking on something for months. blah blah onsights are boring. people dissing chip routes or campusing on jibs in the gym is neat

 

tech tips repeat themself on a 2 year cycle

 

pictures are nice especially pictures of SANDRINE!!!!

 

levet.jpg

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How about stories about climbs and trips that the author actually experienced? Matt Samet's article on Eldo was good, the article on Chamonix was good, Twight on Denali was good, but the "photo essays" of Graham, Parady, and Kinder and their drivel from their several-week long roadtrip was LAME.

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Real stories. Minimum 3 pages of text. It would be nice to actually spend more than an hour reading the thing.

 

Original pictures in the gallery. Check out OUTSIDE, some times they only run one pic, but it almost always rocks. Compare to Climbing or Schlock & Vice. Lots of pics, but mostly the same shot over and over. Yawn...

 

Would gladly give up 12 issues a year for say 4 or 5 good ones.

 

Tami Knight cartoons would be mandatory.

 

Real how to articles. Kinda like monthly installments of "Extreme Alpinism," not just repeats of the stuff you can find in any book, but new ideas...

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