The Alpine Briefs

I've been working on a little side project for the past few weeks: a new website called The Alpine Briefs. This site is the brainchild of American Alpine Journal senior editor Kelly Cordes; I provided some grunt work, along with AAJ editor John Harlin. In our work as AAJ editors, we receive lots of very cool reports, photos, funny stories, and other material that doesn't fit into the AAJ's relatively rigid format. Some of this info ultimately will appear on expanded AAJ web pages, but while those are in the works Kelly inspired us to launch the Alpine Briefs, and, once inspired, we took it much farther than we ever expected.

The site is still new and will build slowly, but we think it eventually will become a much-needed voice for international alpinism, especially in the wake of Alpinist magazine's passing. (Devoted Alpinist.com readers will notice some subtle influences on the Alpine Briefs.) We'll also be sending an e-newsletter to AAJ contributors and American Alpine Club members every couple of months, with updates on the latest content.

On a semi-related note, a new outdoor-sports magazine is launching in Colorado—something of a surprise in this economy, but definitely a niche waiting to be filled.  Elevation Outdoors will launch in February as a free bimonthly, edited by Doug Schnitzspahn, longtime executive editor of the late, much-underappreciated Hooked on the Outdoors.