In a press release last week the American Alpine Club announced that hard copies of the American Alpine Journal will henceforth be only available to American Alpine Club members. “Our members come first,” says AAC Information & Marketing Director Erik Lambert. “Member dues directly support AAC programs: publications, community events, conservation, advocacy for climbers, grants, and more. Non-member sales of the AAJ required significant up-front investment and little return.” Lambert also told Alpinist that from October 2009 through September 2010 only two hundred and thirty-four copies of the 2009 AAJ were sold to non-members.
The AAJ has historically served as the record keeper for significant climbs done across the globe by climbers of all nationalities. While this marks the first time in the AAJ’s eighty-one year history that print copies will not be sold to the public, significant sections of the newest Journal will continue to be available for free online at AAJ.AmericanAlpineClub.org. And as always searchable PDFs of back issues will continue to be available here, americanalpineclub.org/site/aajsearch, as well. (Currently the Journals from 1929-2009 are available but the database will be updated as new Journals are printed.) Print editions of the Journal will also be available to contributors, libraries and partner clubs.