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Alpinist - living the climbing life

Agu 30, 2004 17: 49 EST

Alpinist arrived last year as a surprise to the climbing community. The magazine sported a new, slick design - a clean look with an emphasis on stunning pictures and climbers’ own tales. Alpinist quickly gained respect. It plasters places like the legendary Rock & Snow climbing store in New Paltz, at the foot of the US rock climbing Mecca of the Shawangunks.

Alpinist is the brainchild of Christian Beckwith and the legendary "Red Hat" founder Marc Ewing.

A desire to get close to the climbers

The two launched the magazine in 2002, after Beckwith concluded a lengthy stay with The American Alpine Journal: "I think people were demanding something like Alpinist. Apart from all the information provided on web sites and printed magazines, there was a desire to get closer to the climbers, to what they actually do or feel when they are climbing," he told ExplorersWeb on a recent and rare visit in Manhattan.

It started with a Yodel

"I started a climbing magazine called The Mountain Yodel when I was 24 and living in Jackson Wyoming. I had no money; I didn’t want any money. All I wanted was to publish something that pulled from the artists, the writers and the photographers of Jackson and the Tetons. I tried to make it really fun, so that it had equal parts reverence and irreverence. It gathered a very small cult following and showcased what to me is the purest expression of what I believe in as good climbing.

Followed by a six year stunt with American Alpine Journal

"That led to a man named Yvon Chouinard who started Patagonia and Chouinard climbing Black Diamond Equipment. I had gotten to know him through the mountain community so, when H. Adams Carter, the editor of The American Alpine Journal for thirty-six years, died, Yvon put my name in the hat for The American Alpine Journal. I took that over and I went from a very small 24 page climbing ‘Zine’ to the world’s most authoritative climbing journal. I did that for 6 years. It was like my PhD."

ExWeb: What a change. Wasn’t it hard after having so much fun editing your own local paper?

"It was definitely hard, but it was also a great experience. I traveled all around the world. Japan, three expeditions to Kyrgyzstan, Europe, Tibet, Peru, Wales, Scotland, etc. Saw new mountains, met new people, climbers from all over the world, became aware of other ways of climbing…

The fun and the absurd

"My approach to climbing is I’ve always tried to bring out the fun and absurdity; Climbing is fucking idiotic. You go out there and find yourself in a situation where a lot of our friends die on a regular basis.

So we’re aware of the fundamental nature that climbing is dangerous, but at the same time it’s a tremendous amount of joy.

Not skipping the fact checks

"But, at the AAJ, I did 6 volumes (7 years) and it taught me a very rigorous approach to the factual recording of all the information. My approach at Alpinist is a direct result of everything I learned at the Journal; everything is fact checked not only in books and magazines but always from the source—from the climbers who climbed the route.

ExWeb: How can you be sure that the climbers are telling the truth?

"Well, in climbing, you usually rely on the climbers word. As there is no money involved, and what they climb matters only to themselves or a thousand people, reasons to lie are so small, it’s a code of honor.

The 8000+ peaks

"The phenomenon of the 8000+ peaks is a little bit different and it’s changing as it becomes more and more popular for non-climbers, so the reason for going to 8000 meter peaks is different from the reason that climbers are going to lower, more technical peaks.

They’re not as interested necessarily in the climbing experience as they’re interested in having climbed…Everest, let’s say.

You live out of your car or you live out of a cave

"But Alpinist isn’t interested in non-technical ascents of 8000ers. We are interested in technical climbs and what it’s like for the individual climber – we’re interested in the pursuit of climbing.

We’re not interested in one expedition, or five expeditions, but when you’re involved in the climbing community for 30 years, 50 years - that life style where usually you start out really poor, you got no money but you’re very passionate about it, so you live out of your car. You live out of a cave or you live out of your tent and you slowly gain the experience that brings you into greater experiences.

Alpinist readers are active climbers

"I think that a lot of people that read Alpinist are active climbers today. It becomes more difficult as you get older to live on nothing and live the climbing life 24/7; you get more bills and all that stuff, but I think the people we appeal to had that moment, maybe only a season or a couple of climbing trips a year, but they had that moment of living the climbing life.

And what they get from reading Alpinist is a window back to that moment, ten years, ten weeks, or ten days ago; it’s a chance for the readers to get back to that experience again.

There is something in Alpinist that lets people connect to this life style that is so important to so many people, even if that lifestyle is weekends in the gunks."

Alpinist is the ultimate magazine of no fuzz, clean climbing. The magazine covers some of the toughest routes and greatest climbers in the world, in their own pictures and words. But "we also have cartoons and we try to weave that in because its fun and funny. Stories about climbing trips, when you’re hanging out with your friends and going climbing for the weekend—we try to incorporate that as well."

The magazine also introduces "forgotten climbers" (when was the last time an American heard about anyone like Aslak Aastorp), and their wild climbing experiences: "We are introducing different perspectives, different voices, different opinions from around the world on a regular basis."

Christian started climbing in 1990, when going to school in England. He says that the British approach to climbing has made a big difference in his life; both because they were very organized in a climbing community, but also that after the climb they come back to the pub and have a drink: "One of the best parts of a climb is having a beer and shootin the shit with good friends."

Image of Christian on the roof of ExplorersWeb's office in Manhattan (the old Police house in background), ExplorersWeb files.

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