Q&A

The Sierra Club's newly elected president, Ramón Cruz, has spent his entire professional life fighting for sustainability, climate advocacy, and responsible urban planning around the world. A graduate of American University and Princeton, he has worked as a senior policy analyst ...read more

For most people, the first week of any job entails meetings, paperwork, introductions, a building tour, and lots of administrative details to contend with. But Shannon Davis's first week as BACKPACKER's new editor-in-chief was much more, well, BACKPACKER. The team spent last ...read more

New Mexico isn't just miles and miles of barren desert: There are plenty of outdoor adventures to be had. Axie Navas will tell you. It's now her job to promote the state's outdoor recreation opportunities and uplift its outdoor business as the first-ever director of the Office ...read more

After tossing some trash into a bear-proof trash can, Dana Watts pauses to brush her palm on a sign posted along the trail to Mt. Sanitas in Boulder, Colorado. "It's good luck" she says, adding that it's just something silly she's always done. So I do it too, before her and I, ...read more

Any mountain biker can tell you that the clipless-versus-flat-pedals debate is the oldest and most heated in the community, and one that often turns casual conversation into childish warfare. An avid mountain biker and founder of Hustle Bike Labs, Craig Payne is no stranger to ...read more

Greg Thomsen has had almost every job imaginable in the outdoor industry: a climbing guide, a sales rep, a specialty outdoor retailer, a product designer, owner of Mountainsmith, co-founder of Wilderness Experience. For the last decade, Thomsen has served as the chief outdoor ...read more

The Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office didn't have to look far to replace Luis Benitez, after he announced in March that he was leaving for VF Corporation. Nathan Fey has had his nose underneath the office's tent since its early days. He was a consultant, had a seat on ...read more

Last year, Noa Ries was stuck in a rut. After founding a women's activewear company that took off with investors, she no longer felt like it was her own. As much as it was painful to part ways, her epiphany that she was no longer fulfilled led her to start The Nook Online with ...read more

Six months have passed since Carolann Ouellette was hired to lead Maine's Office of Outdoor Recreation and based on the support from Gov. Janet Mills and other in decision-making roles, it sounds like she'll be around for much longer. Ouellette's post and office will soon be ...read more

In front of a room of journalists in March, Jonathan Nielsen described himself as really good snowboarder, a frequent mountain biker, and an adequate climber. The audience chuckled and the Backcountry CEO took a pause before spilling his excitement over the company's biggest ...read more

More than five years ago, President Barack Obama nominated a new general counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Avi Garbow had been a federal environmental crimes prosecutor, with decades of experience tackling the most critical threats to air, water, and land. In ...read more

James Kubik, 27, lost a friend to a sailing accident during his childhood. His friend, her younger sister, and her father were separated from their boat and didn't have a way to call for help and ultimately, she drowned. Their marine-grade SOS device and other safety equipment ...read more

Victoria Payne describes herself in 2006 as a non-athletic, African American single mom who was trying to climb the corporate ladder as a number cruncher in corporate America. Her closet was filled with colorful silk tops, pant suits, and pumps. She sat in a cubicle and she was ...read more

Ever since 36-year-old Tommy Danger left behind the flatlands of Indiana—and his past as a poor, overweight kid nicknamed Fat Tom who liked to catch frogs and snakes just for fun—he's been obsessed with adventuring and pushing the limits in running, biking, high altitude ...read more

ORCA CEO Cliff Walker spends much of the year on the road, in business attire, selling his brand's coolers and drinkware. So when he’s home working in the Nashville headquarters, he comes casual, dressed in earth-toned shorts and a T-shirt. That down-to-earth approach is a good ...read more

Elísabet Elfa Arnarsdottir grew up in Iceland. Playing outside and exploring the country’s vast wilderness was part of everyday life—and so was wearing functional outdoor clothing that had zero style. So Arnarsdottir made her own. Now, she’s making clothes for the world. As a ...read more

A 2016 survey conducted by the National Park Service found that less than 20 percent of park visitors were non-white. For many reasons, including economic and safety issues, the outdoors can be intimidating, particularly for people of color. Chevon Powell, founder of  Golden ...read more

Buena Vista's The Trailhead is smack in the heart of Colorado Fourteener country—a short drive from 15 of the monster peaks. But for all outdoor recreation in the area, the shop's marketing manager, Susan Wood, and other businesses felt the town still lacked opportunity for the ...read more

Len Necefer has a Ph.D in engineering and public policy. It might not surprise you, then, that his outdoor apparel company is about far more than the gear. Natives Outdoors is a B Corp that shares profits with Native communities, and Necefer is working to take back ...read more

You won’t find Jeremy Hale wearing jeans. Whether he’s in the office, out hiking, or enjoying time off at his family’s cabin in New York, he’s wearing Chinos. Specifically, Mountain Khakis Chinos. “I’m a Chino guy,” he told us last week before he officially started as the ...read more

Bronx native Mirna Valerio first laced up running shoes for a 5K—and just kept going. She now has almost a dozen 50K trail ultramarathons under her belt and is well-known in the ultra world and on social media as The Mirnavator and author of the memoir A Beautiful Work in ...read more

There’s hiking like it’s your job—and hiking because it actually is your job. This summer, the lucky employees of Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based Big Agnes (plus sister businesses Honey Stinger and retailer BAP) are in the latter category. The brands are staging an ambitious ...read more

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is the kind of guy who will stand up in front of a room of outdoor industry professionals, realize he’s overdressed, pause to take off his tie, and then keep speaking as if nothing happened. Before he was governor, before he and three friends ...read more

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, columnist, and author Timothy Egan spent years covering the West—past and present—as a correspondent for The New York Times. His books have covered everything from the origins of the U.S. Forest Service to exploration of the Pacific Northwest to ...read more