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Anna Piunova. [Photo] Marko Prezelj

Local Hero: Anna Piunova

Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz profiles Anna Piunova, editor-in-chief of Mountain.ru. Piunova was instrumental in coordinating the helicopter rescue of Alex Gukov from 6200 meters on Latok I (7145m) in July 2018.

The author with a standard New Mexico rack, ca. 1982--hexes and saddle wedges...sad times, he reflects. [Photo] Nestor Solano

Catching Ludwig

In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 65, Cameron M. Burns learns to belay from an eccentric mentor before braving his way up Castleton Tower with a couple of friends and a few hexes.

Smugglers' Notch, Vermont. [Photo] John Pitocco

The Ice Mirror

In recognition of International Women’s Day, we’re now sharing this Sharp End story by Alpinist Editor-in-Chief Katie Ives that first appeared in Alpinist 65, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store. Ives writes, “I became fascinated by recurring myths and images in the ways that climbers interpret fragments of existence. And as I looked for more examples, I grew absorbed by the sheer volume of alpine fiction written by and about women…. For authors [during the turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries], alpine settings seemed to offer their heroines a level of empowerment that they rarely found in cities…. ‘Why do we want to have alternate worlds?’ asked the fantasy writer Joan Aiken in Locus Magazine (1998), ‘You have to imagine something before you do it.'”

Cannon Cliff in winter. In a crag profile of Cannon Cliff for Alpinist 21, Freddie Wilkinson wrote, Welcome to New England's biggest wall, where 1,000 feet of rivalry, bad weather and exfoliating granite never felt so good. [Photo] Sarah Audsley

An Astonishing Plentitude

This poem first appeared in Alpinist 65, which is now available on newsstands and in our online store. Sarah Audsley is a climber and poet living in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. In January 2019, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. She has received support for her creative work from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. In this feature, we asked her to tell us a little about the inspiration for “An Astonishing Plentitude.”

Scott Coldiron climbs next to the route Raggedy Man. [Photo] Marlin Thorman

Raggedy Man

After recovering from a severe illness in the wake of the Gulf War, veteran Scott Coldiron returns to his long-abandoned climbing dreams–exploring new ice in remote parts of Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. In this On Belay story from Alpinist 64, Coldiron traces the formative experiences of his hard-knock childhood, his discovery of what the mountains offered, and how he found his way back to the peaks that first stirred his imagination.

Anders Ax, pictured here with Lumi the dog at Washington Pass, June 2017. Ax began working as an intern for Alpinist in the winter of 2013, but his familiarity with the magazine started much earlier. While in high school, Ax saw a copy of Issue 16 on a newsstand in the Charles de Gaulle airport and was taken by the cover photo: Tomas Bambus Bardas muscling his way up the overhanging sandstone in Teplice. After his Alpinist internship ended in early 2014, Ax moved West to teach outdoor education. He returned to Vermont that winter to work as a snowboard instructor at Smugglers' Notch, just up the road from the Alpinist parent company office, Height of Land. He stopped by the office one day and offered his services as a fact checker and has been working for Alpinist ever since. [Photo] Courtesy of Anders Ax

Q&A with Alpinist Assistant Research Editor Anders Ax

Every story in Alpinist is thoroughly fact-checked. “Fact checking” has become a more common term in today’s digital headlines, as accusations of “fake news” and “alternative facts” abound in our society. In this feature, Alpinist Associate Editor Paula Wright interviews Alpinist Research Editor Anders Ax about the strategy and nuance of exhaustive fact-checking and how he handles the most difficult questions that may not have definitive answers.

Stacy Bare. [Photo] Max Lowe

Local Hero: Stacy Bare

In this Local Hero profile from Alpinist 64, Teresa Baker writes about Iraq War veteran Stacy Bare and how climbing introduced him to new perspectives, helped him recover and inspired him to seek out ways that nature could help others cope with trauma. “Being able to get outside is a gift,” he says.

Peter and Alexandra Lev, City of Rocks, 1990. [Photo] Lev family collection

To Father from Daughter

In this Climbing Life story from Alpinist 64, Alexandra Lev delves into the past of her father who was already a highly accomplished mountaineer by the time she was born. She writes, “I’d meet climbers and skiers who would say to me with excitement, ‘Your dad is Peter Lev?’ They called him a legend. To me, he was just my dad. I was aware that he’d gone on some expeditions in the Himalaya and that he’d skied extensively in Canada, but I knew none of the details.” Now a grown woman, Alexandra Lev rediscovers her roots with new eyes and appreciation.