The Alpinist Gone!

[montanapup]

Alpinist LLC to Suspend Operations

 

Jackson, Wyoming — October 16, 2008 — Alpinist LLC, which publishes the climbing magazine Alpinist, runs the website www.alpinist.com and produces The Alpinist Film Festival, announced today that the October 2008 financial crisis has forced them to suspend operations.

 

Full details http://www.alpinist.com/

 

Website and link no longer functional at times. Bummer.

Edited October 17, 2008 by montanapup

[Bigtree]

Bummer. I guess I'm going to be screwed out of the balance of my 2-year subscription (about 1 year left as I recall).

 

 

Edit:

 

Despite my pecuniary focus/loss, I too am saddened the climbing community will be losing such a fine rag. Been subscribing since ed. 12.

Edited October 20, 2008 by Bigtree

[jmace]

OH man that sucks, I Have to go back to ragz like climbing and R+I

 

ugghh..geuss its good that 25 is my last one in my subscription!!

[ivan]

bitches. wtf? it's not like folks weren't buying their rag, eh?

[wayne]

Damn. Subscription $ usually cover transport.Prolly advertising $ or lack there of.

What a tremendous standard they set. I hope there is a comeback. Sad day of mourning if this plays out

[Layback]

Bummer. R&I and Climbing just don't compare.

[ScaredSilly]

Part of me is not surprised. But but on the other hand bummed as it was the only descent rag in USA.

 

One of the few the proud owners of 0-25.

 

Anyone need issue 8? Make me an offer.

 

If I get desperate (i.e. my stocks tank) I might sell a duplicate 0 and 1. In the time mean folks can temp me with some offers.

 

 

[Hugh Conway]

The first of many?

[olyclimber]

fuck. as much as you might make fun of these guys going, this was the best rag going. all the others paled by comparison.

[pindude]

I'm more bummed I won't be reading any more new issues than I am losing two and half years' of paid subscription. From the beginning I wondered if Beckwith, et al would be able to make a good go of it, and I thought they were. Too bad for what has been one of the best climbing publications produced.

[Couloir]

True dat. One of the highest quality, most detailed magazines that did such a great job of quietly cheering on contemporary climbers while at the same time paying homage to those in the past.

 

Missing 0-3 if anyone wants to work something out.

 

[Winter]

cheers to alpinist.

[jon]

Great great magazine, next to National Geographic one of the best magazines in publication (well that I read anyways). Unfortunately they didn't have much business sense. Magazine aside, their website was very dynamic and must have been very expensive to run, my guess a $100k+ a year for development, and there was very little in the way of advertising. There was just no way they were making $10k/month in advertising. I heard from a very reliable source that they were asking upwards of $20/cpm (thousand ads) which is an insane asking price. They were simply offering something for less then it cost to make. Regardless sad day indeed.

Edited October 17, 2008 by jon

[korup]

I wonder how long they've known? 25 is a nice, round number, and to profile El Cap- saving the best for last?? And the last paragraph on the last page ends with a "dirt nap." Funny, eh?

[G-spotter]

They've been a money-loser since issue 0. Great mag, could have been better (issue X was a low point) but having a sugar daddy to cover continual losses is not really a long term business plan.

 

I hope they get bought up by someone with experience running a long term viable publication.

[billcoe]

[Don_Serl]

it's all Ade's fault. every mag he ever subscribed to has bitten it. they shoulda refused to accept his sub. (right, Ade? you warned them...))

darn...

nice guys... great publication...

[samh]

I bought five or six issues of Alpinist at the newsstand and sure enough I spring for a subscription and it bites the dust. So I paid $48 for my copy of issue 25 I guess.

 

Alpinist is (and hopefully will continue to be) one of the finest periodical publications I've ever read.

[samh]

This is a note on their blog for those of you who live in Jackson:

 

Posted by: alpinist

 

We're throwing a party for everyone who has ever worked for us tomorrow night [October 18th, 2008] at 760 E Broadway in Jxsn. If you're a reader, you should probably come too.

[DirtyHarry]

Maybe they could at least turn it into a web only publication. Not as good, but would save on a lot of overhead.

[telemarker]

Bad news! I love the large format photos. Maybe Alpinist needed to appeal to a broader audience by adding an "Alpinists: They're just like us!" photo section or "Bivi hair do's and dont's!" or "Who's Hot and Who's NOT!"

 

Serisously, shame to see them go. Glad I bought up what I did. I'm glad they were able to squeak out the Yosemite edition at least.

[setnei]

Bum deal. I was just going to check in on their offices now that I'm down here in Wyoming. Missed the party it looks like too. Maybe they can just scale back to newsprint instead of glossy and save a few bucks until things stabilize.

[setnei]

And if anyone has 0-3 or #5 they can split with, I'll make an offer...

[crackers]

The owner lost something like half his money between August and now. That couldn't help him choose to continue projects out of love...In August, they were talking about expanding and hired a bunch of new people.

 

I don't think their website cost them $100k a year. I really don't.

 

I'm not convinced their dead yet. Maybe I'm just hoping, but somehow, I'm thinking that they will get helped out by that bail out deal...

[tlinn]

Damn it!!!

 

I paid $54 CDN for my issue number 25!

 

I just signed up a month ago and issue 25 just came to me in the mail on Friday.

 

Very sad to hear! What a great magazine. A good read from cover to cover with hardly any junk advertising.... And awesome photos!

 

If the 33% subscription sale was a way to recover for some of the loss by reaching into the pockets of new subscribers that is not super cool! Makes me wonder seen as how they must have known they were going to tank!