Published October 17, 2008 01:16PM
Alpinist, a super-classy alpine climbing mag and bulwark for sport purists, has announced that they will cease operations and suspend publication. The associated website Alpinist.com and the Alpinist Film Festival will also get the axe. In their official farewell, the publishers cite the “October 2008 financial crisis” as the reason. Damn you, AIG.
The Jackson Hole, Wyoming-based magazine began in 2002 when founders Christian Beckwith and Mark Ewing set out to create a photo-heavy, glossy climbing mag dedicated to the purism of big-peak climbing. The result was often a thing of beauty—just a couple steps removed from a coffee-table book. Legendary climber and world-class crank Reinhold Messner once called it “the best climbing magazine in the world today.”
Here’s what Editor-in-Chief Beckwith had to say:
“It’s incredibly sad to close after working so hard for so many years,” said Editor-in-Chief Christian Beckwith. “That being said, I’m deeply proud of our team for putting out twenty-five great issues, the film festival has been a blast, and I’m honored to have shared all this work and creation with our community. I’ll always look back on Alpinist with joy.”
Six years and 25 quality issues is quite an accomplishment. Join us in pouring a forty for Alpinist.
—Ted Alvarez