Travel Writer of the Year

Good news: I've been named 2016 Travel Writer of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. Which is pretty cool. Actually, they call it Travel Journalist of the Year, but even though I sometimes do journalist-y things, I like to imagine I'm more writer than reporter. Humor me, okay?

The judges, professors from the esteemed Missouri School of Journalism, said this about my work: "His stories are expertly crafted to capture the tension and the scenes. His readers ride with him. His stories are narratives with character, tension and resolution."

Thanks guys. I work hard on my stories to do just that. And publishers take note — readers want stories with personality and verve. They want to hear the writer's voice. They want to be transported and be in the story as they read.

Big thanks to Sierra, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Adventure Cyclist, SUP, and The Clymb for giving me the platforms to tell the stories that won this award. A special shout-out to Sierra for their partnership the last few years and for the great editors I work with there, with a special nod to Reed McManus, who skillfully edited my stories on dancing with wolves in Glacier Park and climate change's affect on skiing shortly before passing away of a heart attack in early January. His untimely departure is a reminder for all of us to enjoy our lives while we're here. Let's get out there, have fun, help people whenever possible, and explore this amazing world while we're able.

Here are some of the stories that won me travel writing's highest honor.

"The Wildest Valley," Sierra magazine, Nov/Dec 2015

"Circling the Volcanoes, One Family Circumnavigates Nicaragua's Ometepe by Bike," Adventure Cyclist, May 2015

"North of the Border, A Family Explore Alberta by SUP," SUP the Mag, Summer 2015

"How to Become an Outdoor Writer and Photographer," The Clymb blog

"Worlds Most Unexpected Ski Areas," National Geographic Adventure

Lastly, you may have noticed, or maybe you didn't, ahem, that this blog has gone fallow. With the uninspiring Blogger design and fact that I'm busy with paying work, I wouldn't expect it to come alive with new posts anytime soon. If I do get inspired to write something without a paycheck (seriously, I spend enough time sweating blood at my desk as it is, and I'm also working on a book, which pays squat for the time being), it will probably be at Medium where I can make things more engaging and prettier. 

In the meantime, feel free to follow my professional page on Facebook and turn notifications on so you don't miss it when I post images like this, from my upcoming story on grizzly bears. And, yeah, my camera now has teeth marks on it.

Tour Divide race and an S24O

Recently shot the start of the 2010 Tour Divide race in Banff, Alberta.  This is one of the coolest, hardest bike races in the history of bike races — over 2,700 miles of dirt from Banff to the Mexican border, entirely self-supported. Frankly, it makes the Tour de France look like a leisurely trundle through the vineyards.

Awards are nice

There are a lot of great ways to start your day, but one of the best I know of is to get an email telling you that you've just won a writing award. This had only happened to me once before — until last Monday. That's when I received word that I'd snagged third place in the Northern Lights Awards for Excellence in Travel Journalism and Photography for my story "Return to the Wildest Valley" which ran in the June issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine.

 

If the importance of writing awards correlates with the length of their title, then I'm set. Screw a Pulitzer Prize — that's only two words. My award has seven words, and that's not even counting the really short words. Heck, my award has so many words in its name I don't even have to count them all.

Three Cheers For The Brits

The British magazine Singletrack just came out with a story of mine from an ultralight bikepacking trip last summer. I love the layout and the images they chose. Funny captions, headers, and pull quotes, too. Plus, the editor is my man Chipps Chippendale, who has a flat-out classic name. Great working with you guys on the other side of the kiddie pool...

Flathead Grizzlies

Continuing my celebration of British Columbia's Flathead Valley, I'm posting some images from a trip I took there two summers ago with my father and our friend Ron. My story from that trip can be checked out here. An excerpt to accompany the images follows...

The Flathead: a celebration

British Columbia's Flathead Valley is a special place. In fact, it might be my favorite special place on Earth. The last undeveloped and uninhabited valley in southern Canada, it's one of the wildest of our remaining wildernesses. An international border bisects the valley, and its southern half lies in Montana where my family has a small cabin. The North Fork of the Flathead River flows through the valley bottom and forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park. (It's also a river I had the pleasure of fording a few days ago on a ski trip into the park, but that's a story for future entry.)

For now, it's enough to know that the Canadian Flathead is a stomping ground for grizzly bears, wolves, wolverines, mountain lions, and every kind of toothy creature that lived there when Columbus landed. But for years this sprawling nursery for everything wild has been under threat. Turns out it's rich in more than animal life and soaring mountains. First there were proposed coal mines, then coalbed methane, then gold mines. Things didn't look good.

I started heading up to the Flathead for adventures — and for stories that could help inspire people to demand its protection. Then, just yesterday, out of the blue, the B.C. government announced that they've decided not to allow mining or energy development in the valley.

To say that I'm jumping out of my underwear with excitement is an understatement. I'm rocketing out of my underwear until it's just a speck far, far below me and I realize, wow, it's really cold up here with no underwear, but I'm so excited it doesn't matter, so I just keep rocketing and rocketing.

In other words, I'm excited.

My story in current issue of Mountain Bike magazine

Anyone that has enjoyed my recent posts of bikepacking images might want to head to their local newsstand (assuming they still have a local newsstand) and pick up the current issue of Mountain Bike magazine. It's been out for a while, so may not be on the stands much longer. The story is called "Riding Loaded" and it's about using the latest in ultralight camping equipment to take a five-day, backcountry mountain bike ride in the Canadian Rockies. A shout-out to Jeff Boatman over at Carousel Design Works who was a great riding partner on the trip and who designs the excellent bags we used to carry our gear.

Below are a couple pre-production spreads of the story. To see the entire piece, visit my issuu page here.

still more campfires of 2009

This is John Stamstad and Todd Tanner attempting to dry out their feet around the fire. We'd crossed approximately 5,000 bone-freezing creeks that day and were seriously wet. Which is yet another example of how campfires are both hypnotic and practical.

If you're curious about our trip, you can read the article from Mountain Bike magazine here.

Yet more campfires of 2009

Heavenly descent

Continuing yesterday's singletrack tangent from the ongoing campfire series, here are a few images taken the morning after the campfire from the previous post. It was the last day of a spectacular five-day bikepacking trip in the Canadian Rockies and all that remained was the three-mile descent from our campsite high in the mountains to the truck at the trailhead below. Fortunately, it was three miles of singletrack so good, so beautiful, so seductively sinuous, that it left us buzzing for days. A perfect way to end a glorious trip...

More campfires of 2009

This was one of my favorite campfire spots of the year. Super secret location in the Canadian Rockies. Though I guess it's not actually all that secret since my article on the trip ran in Mountain Bike magazine. (the curious can view it here.) We slept 50 yards below here in the shelter of some trees, but it was the campfire perch overlooking emerald alpine lakes that I'll always remember.