Piers Ellison

Hi! I’m Piers. I’m a long-distance hiker, trail runner, bike tourer, ultralight freak and general lover of anything to do with wilderness, mountains, or big trips outside. 

I joined Wilderness Redefined as a writer and editor in 2023 to help share my knowledge that I’ve gained in my extensive backcountry experience with others. My articles cover topics surrounding:

  • Backcountry safety and gear
  • Outdoor gear maintenance
  • Gear reviews

I’ve not always been interested in hiking and camping (especially in the backcountry), though. I was, in fact, actually pretty hesitant about anything to do with the outdoors for most of my childhood. Despite growing up in the UK’s pristine South Downs (a national park since 2010) and being exposed to its expansive rolling hills by my parents since primary school age, I spent a lot of my youth inside, doing my best to hone my skills on the acoustic guitar.

That is, however, until the tender age of 17 when my best friend decided on the fine idea to sign us and a few others up for a 16 mile-long navigation exercise. This, to my horror, would be taking place not only in the middle of the night, but in the dead of winter. For twelve long hours on this terrible night my hapless comrades and I got lost, accidentally trespassed on numerous fields and, somewhat aptly, were snowed on (which happens quite rarely in southern England).

This first exposure to what some refer to as “type 2 fun” (i.e. something that’s not necessarily that enjoyable in the moment but you come to look back on with great nostalgia), however, seemed to set in motion an obsession with crazy trips in the outdoors. Now ten years on, that obsession has no signs of subsiding.

a man holding a guitar stands next to a tree
Crossing the border into Oregon on the Pacific Crest Trail (2017)

 

A little over a year after that fateful, freezing night on the South Downs, I found myself standing at the US/Mexico border in sunny southern California about to embark on the Pacific Crest Trail. I followed the PCT for about 900 miles until an injury took me off the trail, but I’ve been hooked on long distance hiking and camping in the backcountry ever since. I’ve gone on to hike and cycle along the Continental Divide from the Montana/Canada border to Colorado, hike across New Mexico, walk halfway across France – and generally spend as much time out in nature as possible.

If you feel like taking a hike together, you’ll probably find me either traipsing around the South Downs National Park or riding around Fort Collins, Colorado on my 49 year-old Schwinn “Benny the Super Hip”.