How to contribute to The Professional Mountaineer magazine

Guidance for contributors to The Professional Mountaineer magazine

The Professional Mountaineer is the magazine written by members of the UK and Ireland for members and proudly produced by the four associations: British Association of Mountain Guides, British Association of International Mountain Leaders, Association of Mountaineering Instructors and Mountain Training Association.

The aim of the magazine is to provide a useful resource for members with educational and informative content covering a variety of topics; from skills and guidance to sharing good practise and industry updates, it’s a tangible benefit for all members and can support their personal development or be shared with clients and groups.

We can only do this with your help. You could write a single article or become a regular contributor by writing a short series. All articles will be accompanied by a mini biography, giving you a prime opportunity to promote yourself and your business. The Professional Mountaineer is the only peer-reviewed magazine for this readership and consequently its content carries a premium level of authority and respect.

The four issues are published at the beginning of March, June, September, and December, incorporating seasonal content reflecting the walking, climbing and mountaineering calendar.

*Our members are from throughout the UK and Ireland so please ensure facts, figures, statistics and reference points reflect this - if your article focuses on just Ireland or just the UK please make this explicit in the introduction - preferably please include details and data from both the UK and Ireland*

The Professional Mountaineer Magazine Summer 2023 Cover Image

Articles are divided into subject areas, so should relate to the following categories:

Destinations

Where’s good to go for personal climbing trips, walking, expeditions or your first alpine routes. Sharing trips and experiences, whilst importantly providing practical information on where to go and what’s on offer. This should enable a reader to follow in your footsteps: How you selected your destination; where, how what form of guide or guidebook you used; travel and accommodation costs and locations; tips to make travel their easier; and what you can discover along the way. Logistics as much as why visit.

Technical

Methods of executing skills and techniques related to walking, climbing and mountaineering. Subjects like teaching lead climbing indoors, improvised rescues, short roping, improving navigation, contour interpretation, winter skills, ski touring and alpine mountaineering. Take a specific technical skill within one of the Mountain Training handbooks or Guide training programme, and give your take on it and how you utilise it in your activities.

Our Planet

All subjects linked to the natural environment, its geology, flora and fauna, weather, conservation, sustainability, current affairs and/or topical events around the world that impact the environment.

Wellbeing

All subjects are linked to mental and/or physical wellbeing, mental and/or physical health and the health and wellbeing benefits of our activities. Practical examples of how the members of the associations can use therapeutic tools, the outdoors or their activities to support and enhance participants wellbeing, as well as developments in Outdoor and Adventure therapies.

Business

Advice and information that will help other outdoor professionals from a business perspective whether it’s advice on how to get started, cost effective and self-marketing opportunities, maximising ways of promoting your service or business, social media and legal liabilities.

Guidance

Advice about good practice or lessons learned through experience. These should take the core understanding outlined in the handbooks and the Guide training programme, and illustrate how you use them and have adapted them to fit your practice. Subjects covering leadership, expeditions, top tips for training and assessment courses, safe adaptations of techniques, coaching models and more.

Article and photo guidelines

(there are images of a selection of articles below showing how they appear in the magazine so that you can see what word length and selection of photos work to create a 2 or 3 page article)

Articles should be submitted as a Word document without complex formatting or any images included. Photos and figures should be sent separately.

If you are using a Mac and/or you don't have Word, Open Office is a free and compatible open source alternative to word.

Please do not insert a double-space after a full stop.

Articles should be within the following word counts:

600-800 words (over 2 pages this would be text light and photo/illustration heavy)
800-1200 words (over 2 pages this would have text and photos approximately half and half)
1200-1600 words (over 2 pages this would be text heavy and photo/illustration light)

N.B. Please see examples below to get a sense of how word count and photo size impacts the layout of an article.

Please do not submit articles longer than 1600 words as they will need to be edited down to fit.

Bio’s for alongside your article should be up to 70 words (400 characters), these count outside of the above word limit. Please also submit a shortened bio of up to 35 words (200 characters) for possible inclusion on the editorials page.
Images should be sent in as high resolution as possible and at least 300dpi (digital pixels per inch). They should ideally be sent as separate attachments rather than embedded in the Word document or email. JPG or TIFF preferred but most image formats will work.
Captions and relevant photo credits must be provided along with any copyright information. You can name the file using the caption and credit or, if you know how, include the description in the IPTC data field for description or caption.
Images with drawn captions, ‘topo’ lines etc – please also include the originals.
Include a photo to accompany your bio, preferably head and shoulders, also at 300dpi.
We may need to redesign diagrams and pie charts to fit the ‘house style’.

Book Reviews 400-600 words

We include book reviews, particularly for new releases, and look for volunteers to review books offered to us by sponsors and advertisers. We promise and require honest “warts and all” appraisals.

Front covers

Active individual/s climbing, mountaineering or walking. If in the foreground, ideally looking up and at the camera, smiling. If in the distance can be facing towards or away from the camera.
Submissions should have the focus to one side to allow for article titles on the other, and be cropped into a square (slightly portrait) 210 x 215 ratio.
Pictures should be capable of reproduction at 300dpi, please save your JPG file at “high quality” (80% or better). Don’t worry if you are unsure, send them across anyway.
The final image is 21cm x 21.5cm, so bear that in mind when selecting/sending submissions.

Examples of good cover images are: