50 YEARS AND COUNTING…
Issue No. 1 of Climbing (May 1970) was an unassuming, black-and-white, staple-bound 25 pages directed “to the interests of rockclimbers and mountaineers.” Climbing has since become one of the biggest, most-recognized brands in the vertical world, with an enduring print title, a juggernaut of a website and social media presence, and even an online-education division. And, as of this year, we’re 50 years old—and 372 issues in! I’ve been reading the title ever since I first touched rock. In 1988, on my walk home from Highland High, I detoured to the Wilderness Center outdoor shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I spent my lunch money on my very first copy of Climbing, No. 106. I devoured it in one evening, from the new-route lists in Basecamp, to the features on far-flung…