Turns out it was getting all its go-juice (you know, money) from a monied Linux geek (and we mean that in the “geek is the supreme compliment” vein peculiar to Silicon Valley) who got smacked down hard in the Crash of ’08. From The Snaz:

As I understand it, Alpinist’s lifeline was the stock portfolio of investor Marc Ewing, the Bill Gates of Linux. In the last few weeks, that lifeline took a core shot. Marc coiled it up and stuffed it back in his pack, so to speak, and Alpinist was left without a belay.

Which illustrates the problem of not selling out, i.e. making profit a priority. When your magazine covers a niche sport for dweebs with death wishes, it’s probably advisable, at some point, to sell out. But selling out means compromise.

Great, now that it’s out of business I want to start subscribing.