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Outside Magazine, March 2005

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The Purists (cont.)

In the fall of 2003, two Russian alpinists, Valeriy Babanov and Yuri Koshelenko, made a bold first ascent of the southeast ridge of Nepal's Nuptse East I, a 25,604-foot subpeak of Everest's immediate neighbor, Nuptse.

Because of the route's phenomenal length (more than 8,000 vertical feet) and difficulty (it had thwarted nine previous expeditions), the two men fixed ropes more than halfway up, drilling several bolts to secure them, and preset two camps before launching their summit bid. They were dangerously overextended when they finally topped out, after dark on day five, and far too tired to remove much of their gear on the descent.

The climbing world can be a remarkably catty place, so it came as no surprise that not everyone was awed by the Russians' feat. As usual, some of the loudest critics were members of the Brotherhood, the diehard alpine-style purists whose American adherents include Mark Twight and Steve House. In a scathing letter published in Alpinist 7, House wrote, "Alpinism is not: fixed ropes, fixed camps, bolts, high-altitude porters or breathing supplemental oxygen," adding that "alpinists from all over the world should stand up strongly for good style and draw a line that the style Babanov and Koshelenko employed is no longer acceptable."

For the Brotherhood, the Nuptse climb is an emotional issue, not just because the route had first been attempted by alpine-style climbers (thus, in their view, ethically obliging subsequent parties to follow suit) but also because the bolts and abandoned ropes had, as House put it, "desecrated" the route. Yet, for the Russians, it is equally emotional. As Babanov explained later, he placed only bolts that he "considered absolutely necessary for safety"—and even so, he and his partner very nearly perished. Had they followed the Brotherhood's rules, they probably would have.

"It comes across too strong sometimes, that hard line, and it's pretty frustrating, because I want to see

"How could Ewing not have known what he was getting into?" one climbing-magazine veteran says of Alpinist's failure to reach profitability. "If they expected to run it as a business, it was doomed."

all climbers become a brotherhood," says Mark Synott, a New Hampshire climber who's been criticized by purists for participating in commercially sponsored expeditions. "To do single-push stuff on Himalayan peaks—I mean, what about the 99 percent of climbers who aren't good enough or committed enough to do that? It's incredibly elitist."

Oddly, considering his reputation for being in the Brotherhood camp, Beckwith published Babanov's lengthy account of the Nuptse climb in the same issue as House's denunciation. "I thought it was a great effort that couldn't be discounted," he says. "I don't publish bullshit, but when I see things that are worthy, I like to publish them regardless of what any individual clique thinks. I believe in beauty; I don't believe in one particular streak of ideology."

Wherever Beckwith comes down on such matters, he faces a more pressing question: Are there enough people who care either way? To an outsider, the numbers don't seem encouraging: As of January 1, the magazine had just over 5,000 subscribers and was still operating in the red, though Beckwith and Leinicke insist that, at the current rate of growth, subscriber numbers will triple by the end of 2006.

"In advertising-driven magazines, 50,000 readers is kind of the magic number," says Leinicke, a New York publishing veteran who's the third guy to hold the circulation job. "Here, to break even, I think we'd need only about a third of that."

"There are a finite number of climbers, and there are an even smaller number of climbers who are actually interested in what we're doing," Beckwith acknowledges. "That's the inherent limitation of this. We know we can break even and maybe make a small profit, but we don't think we can ever, you know, go gangbusters."

Nevertheless, he argues, as the brand grows, Alpinist can function as a sort of nonprofit flagship for a host of profitable side businesses, including books, calendars, films, and especially custom-published special issues on behalf of individual corporate clients like Nike and The North Face.

This ambitious scheme won't happen without one crucial element: Ewing's continued support. Early last summer, the rumors began flying that Alpinist was on the ropes. Beckwith had written a new prospectus and was looking for additional investors, and if he didn't find them, Ewing was going to drop out. In the climbing world, this generated a collective "I told you so."

"How could Ewing not have known what he was getting into?" says one former climbing-magazine publisher, requesting anonymity. "When people asked what I thought about it, based on my experience, I said that if they expected to run it as a business, it was doomed—there was no way to make money on it."

Ewing relented, after he and Beckwith agreed on a general belt tightening. Hollenbaugh was laid off, and others agreed to pay cuts. Word and photo rates were pared back, and there seems to have been a slight shift in editorial focus, with more coverage of non-Alpinist pursuits like bouldering and rock climbing.

"We were thinking about trying to get some additional investors," acknowledges Ewing. "But Christian is very stubborn. He wants to stick with what we said we were going to do for the readers, and some of the things that came back were going to cause us to change that and maybe lose some control. So I kind of re-upped my commitment to the magazine, just so we could remain independent and keep pushing."

How deep is that commitment? Ewing admits he hasn't been climbing in more than a year, mostly because of a new passion: yacht racing. Last summer, with just 18 months of sailing experience, he led a ten-man crew to a respectable eighth-place finish in the highly competitive Farr 40 World Championship.

"I didn't know I had this competitive thing in me, but apparently I do," says Ewing, laughing. "There's a chance that the next thing could be sailing. It's pretty big for me right now."

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