Alpinist Magazine suspends operations

Alpinist is Closing. The cult magazine for mountaineers worldwide has suspended operations due to the financial earthquake which hit world markets this autumn. The news, published on 16 October on alpinist.com, immediately resulted in a sincere display of regret on behalf of the many passionate readers for the loss of one of the most important sources of inspiration for their dreams. The vast majority even stated they would be willing to contribute to keep the magazine alive.

In effect the quarterly magazine was founded in 2002 by Marc Ewing and Christian Beckwith and in these seven years had developed a project which concentrated on graphics, beautiful images and quality content. Many ascent reports were written by first-hand by the mountaineers themselves and the underlying Leitmotiv was pure, alpine style. This choice, to represent the game from within, soon reaped rewards and Alpinist became the reference point not only for many passionate climbers but also for those playing the game at the very limit. Furthermore, as the magazine expanded so did the online version, as well as the Alpinist Film Festival which, since 2004, was dedicated to mountain films.

In his editorial Christian Beckwith wrote "Alpinist was not a standard route to magazine publishing. It was a new route..." We would like to add that the route was severe, authoritative and, at the same, ductile and permeable to the beautiful and new. Alpinist definitely represented an important research and a beautiful adventure.

On our behalf we would like to add that we truly hope a solution can be found that enables the Alpinist experience to continue, perhaps only via web as many readers have put forward. We have always believed that multiple visions and different points of views can enrich all, even and above all those who, like us, have chosen the adventure of communicating and transmitting the world and passion of the mountains.