In reply to paul_in_cumbria:
> Mick, I'll look forward to the cult climbing magazine retrospective. It was an era of the like we'll never see again. Apart from the fragmentation caused by digital media, the excitement of picking through the new climbs sections and planning the weekend's activities to 'have a look'. We'll never see that level of new routing again.
> As a dedicated crag rat, Mountain never really meant much to me. I remember John Stevenson had bound copies of all the classic magazines, but it was 'Crags' and 'High' which were to us the really radical publications, and in retrospect, a really fascinating insight into Birtle's imagination.
> Was OTE your 4th cult mag? Really reflects well on Gill who captured the zeitgeist so well.
> Get writing youth!!
Hi Paul, sorry have just seen this. Without giving too much away (oh, sod it!) Rocksport, Mountain, Crags, OTE. Crags was kind of Rocksport on steroids. It had a focus that Rocksport hadn't - the Cream Team. And it was launched at precisely the right time. (Even Birtles couldn't control the weather - that glorious summer of '76.)
Yes, another crag rat, did little in the Alps apart from rescuing the President of the French Alpine Club (they gave me a medal - much embarrassment, hilarity and drunkenness). But the sweep, the breadth of Ken's vision, those front-covers uncluttered with crap, the striking images, the breathtakingly cool 'Mountain' logo. I was - am - lost in admiration.
Birtles played a blinder with the last issue of High. He saved the best for last, he really did.
Tom Prentice was superb at Climber & Whatever. An utter gentleman. A pleasure to work with.
Gill did indeed catch the zeitgeist superbly. Greg and her were a superb team, complementing each other beautifully. The best issue? OTE 32 - beside me now. Mick Ryan's prophetic 'The Young Ones'. And, on the front cover, beautiful, doomed Rachel Farmer reaching for the chains on Raindogs.
I need to stop farting around and send it in to Natalie.
> It was an era of the like we'll never see again.
> We'll never see that level of new routing again.
Absolutely.
Mick