The Mountain Gazette is a flat-out magazine legend. For eight years, from 1972-79, Mountain Gazette was considered by many people to be the best and most influential outdoor publication in the Known Universe. It gained a well-deserved national reputation for eclecticism, irreverence, intelligence, wit and insight that has yet to be matched by any of the outdoor publications now in existence.
Mountain Gazette also paved the way for an entire generation of well-known outdoor writers, photographers, thinkers, philosophers and pundits to practice and hone their skills in a rough-and-ready environment before the glossy and sanitized coming of Outside and Backpacker. Among the names gracing the pages of Mountain Gazette in the '70s were Edward Abbey (whose famed “The Monkey Wrench Gang” first appeared in the pages of MG), John Jerome, Wendall Berry, Galen Rowell, David Roberts, Lito Tejada-Flores, George Sibley, Dick Dorworth, David Hiser (who has shot more National Geographic assignments than any of photographer) and Bob Chamberlain. Giants all. Giants still. Don’t believe us? Well, feel free to google any of those names and prepare yourself for a tsunami of stunning CVs.
Despite the fact that Mountain Gazette was the grandfather of most of today's "outdoor lifestyle" magazines, it fell prey to the glossy-is-good trends of the late-'70s and early '80s. Though it was a tremendous creative success, MG didn't do so well financially, primarily because, well, the people running it paid far more attention to their creative efforts than they did their business efforts. After publishing 77 wonderful issues, the Gazette took a well-deserved vacation.
In 2000, after a 21-year hiatus, the Mountain Gazette returned to the world of the living; it was reborn through the efforts of long-time Colorado journalists M. John Fayhee and Curtis Robinson, with an enthusiastic buy-in from Woody Creek, Colorado, resident George Stranahan, the man who bankrolled MG during its romp through the ’70s.
As we contemplated the resurrection, we all agreed on a basic conceptual framework that we carry with us still. Our operational philosophy, which we stole directly from what we call the “old Gazette,” focuses on two areas: First, "the mountains," whether they be in Montana, Colorado, the Sierra Country or New England, have many more things in common culturally, socially and economically than they do differences. While, certainly, a high percentage of our editorial content is Rocky Mountain-centered, most of what we deal with in our articles has applicability to all of the mountains and the people who love the mountains, whether they live in or near "the mountains" or are mountain lovers/devotees who dwell far from vertical terrain in an urban area. We take advantage of the reality that there is already a sense of community and commonality with "the mountains," as well as serving as a conduit for furthering and perpetuating that sense of community and commonality.
Second, the mountains are awash with the Xtreme Scene, Xtreme Games, Gravity Sports mentality that shouts, "get out of MY way." We feel that there's an anti-Xtreme mindset/backlash that we both take advantage of and nourish. At the same time, there is little doubt that there are several hundred thousand mountain-lovers who have already read enough magazine stories about 20-year-olds kayaking off 100-foot waterfalls. Those people flock to Mountain Gazette to the point that people wait in line when a new issue hits the streets and take that issue home and share it with friends and save it forever. Few other magazines in the country are as coveted as the Gazette. And, even though our editorial content deals with such seemingly extreme activities as backcountry skiing, climbing and whitewater rafting, that content is presented in a deeper context, a context that supercedes the mere doing of the thing and enters into the realm of the underlying philosophical underpinnings of why people like us come to the mountains in the first place. And all that is presented by writers who have dedicated their entire lives in the pursuit of transciptural excellence. Yes, our writers have large vocabularies.
Our goal when we decided to resurrect this magazine was to capture the literature of the mountains, to illustrate the qualities and expose the quagmires of a hard-to-define emerging ethic/lifestyle that is part traditional, part something new. We feel this emerging mindset is a key factor in Mountain Gazette's success.
In November 2000, after several months of taking care of grown-up matters, like establishing a corporation and raising money, we suddenly found ourselves with an entire garage-full of 64,000 copies of Mountain Gazette #78, the official resurrection issue. From there, we loaded up our various rattle-trap vehicles and began a series of journeys from Canada to Mexico, from the Sierras to the Cascades to the Rockies, where we walked into gear shops, brew pubs, books stores and java huts, bearing stacks of a publication that had been dormant so long that we suspected few would remember it. We were astounded from the get-go. We simply could not believe how many people remembered or had heard of Mountain Gazette. People thanked us for bringing it back, they bought us beers, they actually danced and laughed and cried tears of joy.
It was one seriously humbling experience.
Since its resurrection, MG has seamlessly continued with its high literary standards. In addition to reestablishing creative relationships with contributors from the ’70s, such as Sibley, Dorworth and Chamberlain, MG has formed new relationships with some of the most luminarious writers in the West, including Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bowden, John Nichols, Katie Lee, Ellen Meloy, Mary Sojourner and Royal Robbins.
After almost seven years in its resurrected mode, during which time it was honored by Utne Reader as the Best Regional Publication in the country, the Gazette took yet another step when, in Sept. 2006, it was purchased by GSM Media LLC.
Though it has now had three incarnations, the Mountain Gazette has remained true to its historic roots: First and foremost, it’s all about the writing. As an extension of that, it is one of the few truly honest consumer publications left in the country. The Gazette does not co-opt editorial space for business purposes; it does not run reviews just to suck up to companies whose products are advertised in our pages; it does not sell out the backcountry by running “secret-destinations-revealed”-type stories.
We operate from the perspective that there is a very identifiable and palpable mountain culture these days. And that culture is without a unified periodical voice. There are fragmented voices, each focusing on a separate recreational element of the mountain experience, or, failing that, focusing on such pressing issues such as how to tastefully arrange floral bouquets on the dining room table of your mountain vacation home, but nothing at the core, nothing dealing with the unique heart and soul of the mountain environment and culture.
With the Mountain Gazette, that void is filled. With this magazine legend, we delve into what makes the mountains such a special place to live in and visit. We serve as the official unofficial voice of the mountains and the mountain culture, with every issue filled-to-brimming with stories about people, places, events, adventures, expeditions, books and everything else that can be found in the realm of vertical topography.
And we do so with a stable of the best-established — as well as the best up-and-coming — writers, photographers and illustrators in Mountain Country. The people behind the Mountain Gazette are all long-time mountain dwellers, with a passion for mountainous terrain, culture and lifestyle.
This passion is very evident in the pages of Mountain Gazette. There are heapin' helpin's of stories that entertain, amuse, edify and infuriate you. Sorry, but that’s our job.
