Writer and photographer Michael Lanza is the creator of The Big Outside, where he writes about his outdoor adventures, including many with his wife and children, and which has made numerous lists of top hiking blogs. Michael’s book Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks, winner of a National Outdoor Book Award honorable mention, chronicles his wilderness adventures with his wife and their young son and daughter in national parks imperiled by climate change. Michael was the Northwest Editor of Backpacker magazine for 11 years.
An avid backpacker, climber, trail runner, backcountry skier, and cyclist, he has hiked and climbed extensively in the U.S. West and Northeast and published stories in several magazines about adventure travels on four continents. His articles about global warming helped Backpacker earn a National Magazine Award for general excellence in 2008. He has worked as a magazine editor, co-hosted a call-in radio program, self-syndicated a weekly outdoor column in about two dozen New England newspapers, and worked as a newspaper editor and reporter long ago in a land far, far away.