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Rock Magazine! 13-Jul-2009 At 2:11:28 PM The Keeper

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Checking in after a bit of an aside. If you don't have ROCK what do you have? It is a good mag for a lot of reasons. It is "your" mag - enough reason in and of itself for you to support it. What is the alternative - the price of American climbing mags in Aussie packs a nastier bite than a deranged goanna. No mag is perfect and ROCK is very good - not perfect but focus on the positives. The piece on the Master of Tinbeerwah was priceless - good to see an excellent bloke getting some exposure! Climbing 29s at that age - think of what he will be doing 10 years from now - yikes! Unleash that lad on the world climbing comps! Neils comments are spot on - the climbing publishing business is filled with failed attempts. It takes a lot of things to break in the right way for one of those to succeed. We just about lost Alpinist and it's resurgence is far from guaranteed. Support your mag - it is about more than a few bucks - it is about community, communication, history, motivation, committed small business folks doing things for the passion of it , the lives of the un-rich but soon to be famous and much more. Slagging things takes no talent - contributing to the success of others efforts does. This from the Keeper who just happens to have a complete set of this Dead-Sea Scrolls- like offering. There is a lot of humor - not all readily apparent - in the mag - which makes it worth my while - every issue!!!

For those who tire of the in- your -face , self-centred, offerings from the lower(ed) 48 - I recommend as appropriate antidote - Gripped or the Canadian Alpine Journal!
They have been known to cover some of the more legendary offerings and writings of the mob down under - there is a connection with Aussie through the exploits of the denizen of southern aussie - John Fantini - who is still tearing up routes at Skaha at a pace not far off that lad up at Tinbeerwah!

All the moaning may motivate me to write an expose on the first non-vegemite ascent and descent of Mt. Australia - and submit it to ROCK - they likely would have to double the print run to meet demand- and that could be a scary result for the Great Aussie Death Zone. :) !

One can imagine that if Rock were to die, what would the fates allow - maybe a band of brigand Kiwis would fire up an offshore edition of their little newsletter and peddle the
pieces from one end of Aussie to the other - they are the master infiltrators to which even the Keeper doesn't hold a candle - and then you would definitely have a very different version of Aussie climbing history. So if you let ROCK wither on the vine then you really could get some just deserts complete with full page ads of the All Blacks doing cross training - running laps on Ozymandius or Serpentine. :)

Cheers from Up Over.