Alpinist Magazine is an archival-quality, quarterly publication dedicated to world alpinism and adventure climbing. The pages of Alpinist capture the art of ascent in its most powerful manifestations, presenting an articulation of climbing and its lifestyle that matches the intensity of the pursuit itself.
Alpinist | Winter 2018 | An Invisible Compass
Features:
All from Nothing
Forty years ago, Jim Donini, Michael Kennedy, George Lowe and Jeff Lowe made an attempt on the North Ridge of Latok I that became a legend. Decades later, the peak has dominated headlines again: in July 2018, Alexander Gukov and Sergey Glazunov reached a new highpoint before an accident resulted in Glazunov's death; in early August, Aleš Česen, Luka Stražar and Tom Livingstone summited the mountain by a variation of the North Ridge; and later that month, back in Colorado, Jeff Lowe passed away, after a long struggle with illness. Herein, Livingstone, Gukov and Donini reflect on the events of this season and some of the history that continues to reverberate in the climbing world today.
The Elixir
As climbing artist Sarah Uhl paints mountains, she seeks to capture more than just their physical outlines—the essence of the wild itself.
The Secret of Silence
From the muting of opposition by the Communist regime of 1970s Poland, to the quiet of remote wild places in the Himalaya and the Arctic, Polish big-wall climber Marek Raganowicz has experienced many different varieties of silence. In 2017, during a winter expedition to the vast granite of Baffin Island, amid the intense cold and frequent solitude, he encountered his most moving experience of stillness yet.
Life Compass
In March 2018, Brette Harrington's life partner, Marc-André Leclerc, died in the Mendenhall Towers of Alaska, with Ryan Johnson. About a month later, she traveled to the Canadian Rockies to immerse herself in the wintry alpine landscapes that remind her most of him. Exploring unclimbed terrain on Mt. Blane, accompanied by Rose Pearson, she tries to reorient herself within the void of all she has lost.