One of the things we’re most grateful for is the community that’s grown around these pages—trusted contributors who (alongside new voices) return issue after issue.
That’s George Sibley to the left—and that’s where we'll start.
Sibley's essay in Mountain Gazette 205, “Being Old”, moves between mortality and responsibility—wrestling with what it means to keep going, to step aside, or to justify one’s place in a changing world. From early ski patrol days shaping moguls by hand to larger questions of aging, usefulness, and cultural debt, the piece is restless, searching, and resistant to easy answers. Sibley has been writing for MG since it was Skiers’ Gazette, and is older than some of the tree rings in the art that accompanies the piece. A true legacy.
Another name MG readers will certainly recognize is senior writer Ari Schneider, who wrote the issue’s cover story (that’s his hand on the cover), centered around last summer’s Telluride Mushroom Festival. It’s an attempt, as editor Mike Rogge put it, to cover “everything you want to know about psychedelic mushroom use… and probably a lot of things you didn’t.”
In the ski world, Ingrid Backstrom returns with musing on the art of the sandbag, alongside Cody Townsend, who steps into the Jaded Local column for this issue with his own take on terrain, tone, and the things that tend to get under your skin in mountain towns.
Steve Martin and Harry Bliss also continue their ongoing collaboration with the magazine—work that somehow sits comfortably between humor, observation, and the occasional quiet absurdity of, well, life.
Of course, we are welcoming a few new voices, too.
Chloe Weir is one of them. Her first two contributions to Mountain Gazette appear in this issue, including a personal essay honoring her father, Bobby Weir. The piece—“Let the Words Be Yours, I’m Done With Mine: Honoring My Dad, Bobby Weir”—is quiet and direct, built around attention more than explanation.
205 also includes new Chris Benchetler original artwork. Outside of MG, Benchetler’s most recent projects include Mountains of the Moon, a collaboration-heavy immersive project (which Hannah had the great honor of attending the premiere of). Benchetler’s work has always felt like it’s operating in more than one register at once: movement, landscape, and the way experience gets translated into form, and it’s an honor to include new work from him in this issue.
And behind the camera, Zack Clothier brings his practice in tracking and patience to a series of camera-trap images—stunning work that asks for time, both in the making and in the looking.
205 is something special—with voices both old and new—and we can’t wait to hear what you think. DM or tag us on Instagram (@mountaingazette) or hit reply to the next Sunday Email. We love hearing from you.
