Tracy Ross won the coveted National Magazine Award for her Backpacker magazine essay The Source of All Things in 2009. She later turned the essay into a critically acclaimed memoir of the same name. A former editor at both Skiing and Backpacker magazines, she now freelances full time, penning long, deftly reported feature stories for Outside, Backpacker, Bicycling, 5280 and other publications. She is currently working on a book about a rash of disappearances, deaths, and attacks on young Western trekkers in Nepal. REI member since 1990.