Contributor’s Corner: Checking in With Writer Chris Kalman

Chris Kalman is a longtime contributor to Climbing Magazine, and a top freelance writer in the outdoor space. In recent years for Climbing, he’s written a profile of the Yosemite climber Miranda Oakley and a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek profile of his beloved area Index Town Walls, Washington, a zone to which he also penned the most recent guidebook. He’s also the author of the climbing novel As Above, So Below—a must-read in the alpine genre and as a piece of short, narrative fiction in general. Climbing Editor Matt Samet sat down for a Skype chat with Kalman, who is based out of Flagstaff, Arizona, to discuss the realities of being a freelance outdoor writer during the COVID-19 crisis, when climbing as an activity and climbing news are at a standstill, magazine budgets are drying up, and there’s so much economic uncertainty in the air.