Good-Bye For Now

When we launched this magazine ten years ago, we hoped it would find a community of people who cared about the subject matter as much as we did. It was heady stuff, really, the chance to tell stories about something that inspires us all: exploring the world, challenging our assumptions, making a difference. For those of us at the magazine, they're the things that make life worth living.

Then we set to the task of telling stories—a lot of them. At their best, these tales opened our eyes, inspired us, and challenged our assumptions. And we sure covered some ground. In a little over a decade, we managed to journey to the top of Everest looking for the ghost of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. We went into the mountains of Afghanistan with a man fighting the Taliban long before September 11. We tried ayahuasca in the jungles of Peru and stopped whaling vessels in Antarctica. We dodged rampaging elephants and evaded man-eating lions. We walked across Namibia and paddled to Timbuktu. And we enjoyed every last minute of it.

But, sadly, all adventures must come to an end. The December 2009 / January 2010 issue of National Geographic Adventure will be the last regular print edition. It's on newsstands now and, like our very first issue, it will surprise, move, and inspire you. But Adventure isn't gone for good. Keep an eye out for special newsstand editions, books, and on the web.

Until then, we’d like to sincerely thank our writers, photographers, illustrators and especially our readers for joining us on one of the greatest adventures of our lives. We hope to see you again soon.

The Editors