Presenting Summit Journal, a new - er, old - print climbing mag

Hey folks,

I’m a former editor at Rock and Ice and Climbing magazines. You may have already seen the following news, but I’m excited to announce that I’m launching a new – or, rather, re-launching an old – print rock climbing magazine. I’ve been hard at work for the last several months laying the groundwork to resurrect Summit magazine, the first monthly climbing magazine in America, founded in 1955 by Jean Crenshaw and Helen Kilness. 

Summit's pedigree is pretty special: Royal Robbins was an editor, as was David Roberts. Other contributors included Arlene Blum, Yvon Chouinard, John Gill, and, in the 90s, writers like Jon Krakauer, Chris Bonington, and Mark Jenkins, among others. Right alongside those greats, Summit always published creative and daring pieces from the everyman and everywoman. And the covers, oh the covers!

The new Summit Journal is a biannual, print-only, large-format, coffee table-quality magazine focused on long-form storytelling. Independent, climber-owned, subscriber-revenue driven. Nothing we print ever goes online, and we only print as many copies as we have subscribers. The only way to read is to subscribe. I’ve got some incredible contributors already lined up, from Jeff Jackson, Chris Kalman, Angie Payne, and Michael Wejchert, to Margo Hayes, Conrad Anker, Maureen Beck, and the one and only John Long. 

Rock climbers deserve a high-quality print pub focused primarily on the kinds of climbing most of us do – namely, rock. So Summit will cover all disciplines, from bouldering to alpinism, but skew rocky. We’ll also never run sponsored content or sell out to advertisers.

But that also means that subscribers are the lifeblood of this model. We need to hit our goals to make Summit Journal a reality. So for anyone who wants to support independent climbing journalism, please consider snagging a subscription and spreading the word. If you've got any questions -- or a story you want to write -- drop me a line!

Print ain’t dead! 

Cheers,

Michael Levy

BITD it was only Summit and Mountain Magazine that covered the climbing scene.

Sounds cool, good luck with the project.

Tad 

Super cool. Would love to support this. We need more print media

I hit that button, you should to!  

Defend analog. ;) 

Jimmy Strange wrote:

At the risk of being a snot, what’s the ratio of alpine, winter and international content? Rock and bouldering are all good and well but have lots of space everywhere, whilst ‘big’ stuff, especially beyond just trip reports ala AAJ, whilst once a pillar of climbing writing is now rare.

Err, what about Alpinist? While I feel that it has been focusing a bit too much recently on DEI content ( nothing wrong with some of this content), it still does provide decent coverage of the ‘big stuff’. Personally I prefer more rock, because, as Michael wrote above, that’s what I do these days.

The original Summit was definitely a bit ‘quirky’ and also very California focused, but back when I started climbing, it is literally all that there was in terms of climbing media—except the club journals. Mountain Magazine was a true ‘game changer’ in that regard. I hope this new venture has the same effect going forward.

Jimmy Strange wrote:

At the risk of being a snot, what’s the ratio of alpine, winter and international content? Rock and bouldering are all good and well but have lots of space everywhere, whilst ‘big’ stuff, especially beyond just trip reports ala AAJ, whilst once a pillar of climbing writing is now rare.

Don't worry, already got plenty of powerful narrative focused on big stuff lined up for the first issue! From Peru to... well I'll just leave it there for now.

Subscribed. Psyched! 

Alan Rubin wrote:

Err, what about Alpinist? While I feel that it has been focusing a bit too much recently on DEI content

And that is why I canceled my subscription to Alpinist.

Subbed!

mdl wrote:

We’ll also never run sponsored content or sell out to advertisers.

Meanwhile ... Outside+ be like

FrankPS wrote:

And that is why I canceled my subscription to Alpinist.

Why are you bothered by DEI content?

Marc801 C wrote:

Why are you bothered by DEI content?

Neither of them said it bothered them. Being uninterested is not the same thing.

I had a subscription to Rock and Ice forever, and enjoyed it when it was print format. When Climbing took it over and they went to all digital, I stopped looking. Recently, I wondered if I was missing anything and got the digital subscription. Perused a couple of issues. At this point, I find most of the content uninteresting and I have already cancelled the autorenewal. I plan to subscribe to this new Summit print format (once he adds a pay option that I use).

I think this is super cool!

Remember when Summit went from B&W to Color

T Hocking wrote:

BITD it was only Summit and Mountain Magazine that covered the climbing scene.

Don't forget Off Belay.

Marc801 C wrote:

Why are you bothered by DEI content?

Because I want to read about the climbing. Your gender or race is irrelevant. And superfluous. And boring.

From the site

There is no independent, trusted voice left in climbing media.

Damn - shots fired at The Climbing Zine?

Regardless, you've got a subscriber in me - as does the Zine.

if its going to just be about rock climbing why bother calling it Summit? be honest and call it Rock climbing.  I lost interst in Alpinist when they dedicated an issue to bouldering long before they got fixated on gender and race politics.

What is the current status of this publication? Is it still 'in the works'.? If so, when is the first issue expected to be available?

Alan Rubin wrote:

What is the current status of this publication? Is it still 'in the works'.? If so, when is the first issue expected to be available?

First issue is done, currently with the printer! Should be shipping to subscribers late Feb/early March. Deadline to subscribe to get issue one as part of subscription is February 1. (Single issues won't be available for purchase as back issues; we'll have a small number of extras of issue one that will be available as add-ons for subscribers that miss the Feb 1 deadline.)

Got some pretty great stuff in the first issue that I'll be able to share some more about soon.

Wonderful, just subscribed!