Megan Michelson

Writing

Megan Michelson decided she wanted to be a journalist back in sixth grade while job-shadowing a local newspaper reporter in her hometown in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. It just took her a few more years to realize she could combine that career path with her passion for the outdoors. “People always say write about what you love, and that truly is what I do,” says Megan. After college, she worked as a small-town newspaper reporter before landing an internship, then a job, with Outside magazine. Megan went on to work as an editor at Skiing magazine, and as ESPN.com’s freeskiing editor before launching a freelance writing career. These days, she writes for the likes of The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Outside, SKI, Backcountry, and brands and organizations like Flylow, POW, Atomic, Arc’Teryx, Red Bull, and more.

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Home Base: Tahoe City, CA, USA
Current Location: Tahoe City, CA, USA
Top Clients:
Outside, SKI, Backcountry, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Flylow, Protect Our Winters, Arc'Teryx, Atomic, Red Bull
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Megan excels at long-form profiles of people in the outdoor world who she finds interesting. “Pick someone you want to learn more about, then go spend time with them and call it work—talk about a dream job,” she says. Megan also dabbles in photography enough that she can document assignments.

Megan writes stories with depth. She also never misses a deadline. When I’m in a bind or need a pro, Megan is on a very short list of folks I can trust to get the job done well. I can’t imagine her not being part of our publication.

Mike Rogge

Editor, Mountain Gazette.

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Megan is at work on several upcoming feature profiles on subjects including ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin, filmmaker Max Lowe, and freeskier Eileen Gu for various print magazines. Look for those stories this fall.

Career Storyline

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4

Books contributed to

700+

Editorial and Commercial Assignments

Experience

  • Tahoe City, California

    Editorial assignment

    09/2023
  • Chile

    Editorial assignment

    Ski
    08/2023
  • Mount Shasta, California

    Editorial assignment

    Backcountry Skiing
    06/2023
  • Iceland

    Magazine Assignment

    Backcountry Skiing
    05/2023
  • Bozeman, Montana

    Editorial assignment

    04/2023
  • Big Sky, Montana

    Editorial assignment

    WritingSki
    03/2023
  • British Columbia, Canada

    Editorial assignment

    Writing
    02/2023
  • Mount Whitney, California

    Editorial assignment

    MountaineeringClimbWriting
    06/2018

Awards and
Recognition

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20231107

Top Adventure Story, Backpacker magazine.

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20231108

John Swett Award for Media Excellence

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20230614

Speaker at 2012 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference

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20211006

Media panelist for the 2021 PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference