[PeterH]

UP is an annual yearbook of European climbing, published in Italian and English, and  featuring a lot of in-depth articles and interviews, as well as news, really great photos, new topos and hardly any ads. Equal weight to bouldering & chuffing (???why is it called chuffing???) you'll be pleased to hear.

The 2010 edition, with news from 2009, comes out in a couple of weeks and you can buy from Cordee in the UK/get your local shop to order from them (or if you're very stuck, order from http://www.versantesud.it/ from 10 Feb). Outside in Hathersage normally has them. Here's the cover:

Detailed list of contents & preview pages http://www.up-climbing.com/en/up-magazine/up2010/contents-up2010 Interviews with Johnny Dawes & Iker Pou; discussion on Dreamtime;...

I do the translations for Versante Sud and they get me to interview UK climbers: last year Ron Fawcett, Alastair Lee; this year Johnny Dawes. At €14-ish UP is very good value, deserves to be better known and probably one of the few mags to present a truly cross-European view point.

If people have seen UP before, or if they see the 2010 one for the first time, I'd be interested to know what they think.

ciao Peter

[Paul B]

are you a member of any other discussion boards?

...your posts all seem a little 'strange'.

[Serpico]

At €14-ish UP is very good value,

In which parallel universe is €14 good value for a magazine?

[Tommy]

Peter, I have most back issues of this mag and guess what, I didn't pay for them as they always seem to be given away for free! Interesting for about 10-15mins in quick browsing, but otherwise not very good value.

I'm afraid to say that I actually rate this mag enough to use it as a scrap book to stick my other inspirational photos of routes/boulders over the top of the pages in UP.

It is good for improving your language skills though, as you can immediately check how good your translating skills are!

That's my opinion anyway.

[PeterH]

"...your posts all seem a little 'strange'." Probably 'cos although I grew up in the UK I've lived abroad for a while. We now live in Sardinia, almost zero local climbing scene but tonnes of rock. UKB I find is a very good forum for obtaining info (we just went to the USA and got good info), good straight discussions,  and I like to give something back from the things I come across, where we live and doing what we do. 

"It is good for improving your language skills though, as you can immediately check how good your translating skills are!" So you got given both the Italian and English versions? You must have a generous friend! Only the very first issues had both English and Italian in the same issue.

"In which parallel universe is €14 good value for a magazine?" I have all the UPs and go back to read them over and over again, and find that the in-depth articles are much more, well, in-depth than what you read in other mags. Which other mags survey the leading climbers from each European country on what they think about, say, RP vs onsight? Most of the other mags (and forums BTW) have a very national perspective, and tend to trot out the same stuff year-after-year: "Getting fit for that spring trip to Font..." I used to subscribe to cycling mags, but stopped after a couple of years since the annual cycle was repeating. Or "Building your trad rack..." if I look at recent UK mags.

I think UP is a good complement to the internet news and the traditional mags. In Italy I get Pareti which I quite like, always has interesting editorials (last one - top climbers fib about their performances, you have to post a vid on youTube before they believe you).

For me, even the topos alone in UP are worth €14 - new single and multipitch routes mainly in Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Turkey...), lots of people who come to Sardinia get their topos for new especially MP routes this way - but maybe you guys aren't interested in this?

Thanks anyway for the comments.

ciao Peter

[Johnny Brown]

I bought the last UP from CragX as I was having a quiet week at work, and it was only when it went through the till that I found out the cost. I regularly fork out a tenner for Alpinist, and it seemed heavier, so I went for it, I think it was £15.

Good points - its nice to get a big overview of the year's news across Europe. Seemed more balanced than anything we get in the uk, web or print. The interview with Dusan was good, as was the Favresse one, but essentially I paid £15 to read a Big Ron interview. You can't put a price on that.

Bad points - I've never picked it up since. The topos were not representative, unbalanced, and for me, a waste of space - 60% were in italy, only 2 from france? Put them on the web. The enquiry piece should have been good but didn't really work. The Walk of Life piece was totally out of date.

I doubt I'd buy it again, unless I was really bored (again) and without net access. One and a half alpinists, or four Verticals, represents better value.

[PeterH]

Good points - its nice to get a big overview of the year's news across Europe. Seemed more balanced than anything we get in the uk, web or print. The interview with Dusan was good, as was the Favresse one

Same is true of Italian or US mags, maybe excepting the other mags you cite. Climbing is very national.

Essentially I paid £15 to read a Big Ron interview. You can't put a price on that.

I was pretty in awe phoning him up to do the interview, but he was really cool about it! In 1984 I remember I was doing Wee Doris, and he walked up to the bottom of the crag. For a millisecond I thought of saying out loud, "Come on arms, do your stuff!" but then thought better of it. Now I wonder how many people on UKB remember that Lord of the Flies film?

The topos were not representative, unbalanced, and for me, a waste of space - 60% were in italy, only 2 from france? Put them on the web.

I agree the topos are weighted towards Italy (the mag comes from Italy), but don't think that web topos substitute guidebooks, especially for MP routes.

Thanks for the comments! Peter

[PeterH]

I am actually quite surprised to get any responses. When I in the past  I have posted "You can get new route info for Sardinia from UP" (admittedly on UKC, once again here's a demonstration that UKB participants are better informed) people have said, "What's UP?!"

Also, re the topos:-

1. some you can get for free from the web site www.up-climbing.com provided you're registered
2. if they were only published on the web for free, I doubt that access information would be translated into English, and if there's one thing that pisses people off more than anything else it's crap info to find the crag. I personally think that a day wasted wandering round to find a route is worth €14 to avoid

Anyway, at the link posted above there's the list of contents of UP 2010, page previews, so you can decide which part of the content justifies or not purchase.

cheers Peter

[Baron]

Wish this forum was like Twitter sometimes - 140 characters or less.

[PeterH]

or four Verticals, represents better value.

Well with Vertical not paying for over a year the people who work for it , it's not going to last long, is it? If anyone knows a good French lawyer to pursue non-payment I would be interested... people warned me they were bad at paying, but I didn't imagine this bad...

Here is what Claude Rémy said about the current issue of UP, ""C'est un sacr... See Moreé gros beau travail, très exigeant qui nécessite beaucoup de contacts, de contrôles, et d'infos sur cette activité qui nous tient tant à coeur. Il y a d'excellents articles, Johnny, Pou, Le bloc, les chroniques... c'est top, de plus tout en anglais, UP devient un peu comme Mountain, c'est même très bien et cela doit être très dur à réaliser par toi, même qu'une fois par année,d'autant plus que chaque année tu essaies de faire mieux..."

All the Font wads can translate -;)