Published since 1929, the American Alpine Journal is the premier annual record of significant mountaineering and long rock-climbing ascents worldwide. American Alpine Club members receive the 500-page American Alpine Journal free with membership.  

The AAJ Online will bring you the entire collection of American Alpine Journals, from our first issue in 1929 to the latest printed edition—approximately 25,000 pages of text. This service has been brought to you with the generous support of Climbing magazine, our sponsors , and our volunteers.

Feature articles and country reports: 
There are two types of downloadable AAJ articles. “Feature articles” appeared in the front of the AAJ; these are mostly stories about the year’s most significant climbs written by the climbers do did them (there are occasional other topics as well). “Country Reports” are from the AAJ’s Climbs & Expeditions section; they contain news from all the new routes reported during the previous year. 

How to find AAJ articles:
Journal Years: Click a year to see its table of contents, including the Feature Articles and Country Reports; the TOC does not list individual climbs within each country. Download articles from this page. 

AAJ Index: This comprehensive index combines all previously published indexes to the AAJ. To locate articles, first find the mountain or author listed in the index (note that multiple spellings are possible). This will provide the AAJ year and the page number for the report. Then go to the Journal Years to locate the article for downloading. The comprehensive index is pretty good, but is subject to most of the errors in those previously published indexes. Please send corrections to aaj@AmericanAlpineClub.org.  

The AAJ Index can be downloaded for free or viewed online.  

Prices:
Articles from AAJ Online are offered in downloadable PDF format. While some articles are free, most cost $3.50 per article ($2.50 to AAC members) and $5 per article for the current AAJ year ($2.50 to AAC members). Each year is also downloadable in its entirety for $25 per year for past issues; $35 for the current issue (AAC members: $15 past years and $25 current year). By 2006 the entire collection should become available on DVD. A likely price: $75 for AAC members and $130 for non-members.  

What the AAJ reports:
In the early years, the AAJ reported primarily on expeditions made by American Alpine Club members, but soon it started chronicling important ascents by all climbers. For the past several decades the AAJ has attempted to gather reports from all the first ascents of mountain and big wall routes worldwide. Unfortunately, from the early 1970s to 2004 the AAJ rarely reported on the Alps or New Zealand. We will begin to cover those important ranges in the 2005 AAJ. 

We limit our reporting to climbs of U.S. Commitment Grade IV and longer: all-day routes. Shorter routes are rarely found in the AAJ, except in some regional summaries. As much as possible, articles and reports are written by the climbers themselves. We report on new routes, significant attempts, and occasionally on important repeat ascents. In general, after a route has been done for the first time, we do not report on subsequent ascents, even if they are notable for the attributes of the climbers. There are occasional exceptions to this and every rule. For example, we have been publishing Elizabeth Hawley’s reports on the notable antics on Mt. Everest each year. Various other summaries of events in select mountain ranges can also be found in Climbs & Expeditions. For a brief account of the AAJ’s history, read Preface AAJ 2004.

Free articles:
Many articles about important issues facing the climbing community are free. We encourage reproduction of these articles on websites and in print, but credit must be given to the American Alpine Journal and the authors; contact the Editor at aaj@AmericanAlpineClub.org before publication. 

Your feedback:
This website is a Beta version, meaning that it still has bugs to work out, is not entirely complete, and will likely see significant changes. We are launching with the most recent years and will be working our way backward. Your feedback is welcome and will help to make the site more useful. Please come back often to check on progress and to use our services.