UKC

Would appreciate advice on best UK climbing magazine to subscribe to...have bought a few issues of 'Climb' and love the photography but it's for my more experienced climbing partner who is about to have a serious operation and be laid up for a long while.
Any ideas? He's into Trad and bouldering
Thanks,
Karen

In reply to callipygian:

Climb is the best UK mag currently available. However Alpinist (US) and Vertical (EU) are both very good. I wouldn't bother with Climber, it's not much cop compared to the others.

In reply to mattrm: Think that's a little unfair. Whilst 'Climb' is a great magazine, I think 'Climber' is pretty good too. And as it now has the fantastic David Simmonite at the helm, it would be difficult to criticise it's photographic credentials. Both 'Climb' and 'Climber' are very good magazines and worth a subscription. Best to have a look at their respective websites and look at contents and subscription offers, see which floats your boat.

In reply to callipygian:

Climb is now excellent but concentrates mainly on cuting edge high grade stuff.
Climber is not as good in quality but caters for all grade climbers - well it did last time I looked.

In reply to Christheclimber:

Climb has always had the higher production values in my experience, and that is what I would go for. However, with the change in editorial team at Climber, it will be interesting to see how things change. I've felt that it has been a bit beginnery for a long time now, with some good articles peppered about in between.

In reply to callipygian: High?

In reply to callipygian:
Hi,
Had a magazine subscription to both climb and climber for a while but found them getting a bit repetitive and focusing on rock to much.
Just paid up for a years worth of the American mag Alpinist which from looking at past issues has a hugely balanced coverage of all things to do with climbing and run articles that are well written. If i were forced to lay up from injury this mag would be my choice!

In reply to rampantchopper:

I'm hoping that Climber will raise their game with the new editor. But at the moment, as I said, I don't think much of it. I have a subscription to both and I always read Climb first. I sometimes haven't read the current month's Climber by the time the next one lands on the doormat. The quality of the articles and photos are much better in Climb at the moment. Having said that a while back, I did prefer Climber, but the new team at Climb have done a great job at improving the magazine. Tho I'm more into good quality writing than photos, I've never been a massive photo person (as a result I don't really like photo issues).

In reply to Rolfe Oostra - 360 Expeditions: I have to agree, I subscribe to both Alpinist and RockandIce and find them both hugely enjoyable for article content.

This is not to say that I don't rate the domestic offerings, but I grew a little tired of the writing and found (at the time) that the US mags had better journalistic values.

But both UK mags seem to have improved greatly from the recent issues I've looked at. While I probably won't subscribe (two subscriptions are enough), I'll probably pick an issue off the shelves more often than not as long as they maintain their new standard.

I'd rate both Climb and Climber as pretty even in the quality of writing, perhaps slightly different focuses but pretty comparable overall though Climb still has the edge in terms of photographs.

In reply to Christheclimber:


Yeah, that's why Ian asked me to write for them - I'm so close to the cutting edge I keep slicing myself.

Interesting that Climber has a new editor. They got a new one a couple of years back but I guess he's moved on or it didn't quite work out? I remember when he started there was a lot of discussion that although an experienced journalist he was very new to climbing.

In reply to callipygian:

Climber is aimed at more novice climbers I'd say and is very much UK focused. Climb is becoming increasng global in outlook and has brilliant production values, it's an order of magnitude better than it used to be.

Vertical is great if you are interested in alpine and sub-alpine climbing.

I've never been able to afford Alpinist.

In reply to Tyler:

In my view a mag should be something to inspie you to visit new places or climb new grades, I'm not interested in a crag an hour down the road or a bunch of routes that have been documented in an many versions of a guide book I have.

Hopefully DS will do to Climber what Dave P and Ian P did to Climb.

In reply to callipygian: Alpinist is wonderful but it's really a series of long essays rather than the usual UK Magazine format with shorter 'Departments' etc .

It's almost a book of short stories with great photography - probably ideal for a long layoff though.

Oh, but remember it's only quarterly.

In reply to callipygian: I've only ever read one issue of Alpinist, I liked it! But, then, I spend most of my days reading chemistry journals, so that is probably why it appealed to me; I think they are going for a quasi-journal type mag.

In reply to callipygian: i personally really enjoy climber which i subscribed to and if you time when you join you can get really good free gifts too i personally got a free dragon cam, but yeah would deffinaly recomend it plus it has at least one bouldering section each week (you said they were intrested in bouldering)

Alpinist is top drawer. Vertical is my next buy.