While I do enjoy the Ramblings of Milton and the odd decent feature here and there, I think that Gripped is trying to hard to mimic the big boys. I recently saw some old issues and was reminded of Gripped's old tagline... "Canada's climbing magazine"... now it's a magazine that happens to hold just enough Canadian content to get financial aid from the government.

I would also like to take this opportunity to complain about the cover quality in a recent issue where the resolution was so bad you could see the blocks of pixels. Poor work for a cover shot.

I understand that it's hard to make money in this market, but I don't want to read another Rock & Ice or Climbing clone. I only skim Gripped when I get it for free.

Ok, the reasons I like this magazine are:
a) it's less corporate than Climbing or Rock and Ice.
b) great articles by good writers
c) nice selection of pictures
d) useful information

It's good to see some Canadian published magazines out there as well.

It is nice to read another perspective on North American climbing besides the big American mags, but that is about all Gripped has going for it. They publish such a strange, diverse mix of international news, Canadian access news, alpine articles, and fluffy product reviews that it is hard to really see a focus. I think they took a turn for the worse when they altered their focus from "Canada's climbing magazine" to their current, somewhat more international approach. An expanded photo gallery in each issue would proably distract me from what I see as shortcomings... but the 1-3 photos that they publish in their gallery sections don't cut it for me.

I really like this magazine. It is less reserved than most US publications and has a little bit of a different perspective. I did take forever for the first issue to arrive, but so do most mags.

ya! an awesome mag but i had some problems with my subscription that kinda p*ssed me off...

- after 4 months of nothing, i finally mailed them a letter explaining it...in 2 weeks, i got a letter of apology and the back issues i missed...

but over all an awesome mag