Careers at OutdoorAdept

Join Our Team of Hiking Writers

OutdoorAdept is a hiking guides blog backed by field testing. Every guide here was written by someone who had actually done the thing: the trail walked, the mistake made, the detail the guidebook left out. We are looking for hikers who can write that down.

  • Paid work
  • Ongoing, not one-off
  • Your name on every piece

This page is about joining the team: paid, recurring writing work published under your own name. Two things to know before you read on. We are not recruiting gear testers here, because our footwear reviews are written by the people who buy and test the shoes. And if you have one story to tell rather than ongoing work, our Write For Us page is the right door.

The work

What you would actually be writing

Trail guides and routes

Routes you have walked yourself: honest difficulty, navigation quirks, water and resupply, permits, and what the guidebooks got wrong.

Trip reports and experience

The hike as it actually went: the weather that turned, the wrong turn you took, the thing you would do differently next time.

Skills, safety and how-to

Navigation, first aid, water, winter travel, getting fit for a big trip. Practical pieces grounded in situations you have been in.

Pieces people read for pleasure

Interviews, oddities, the stories hikers swap at the hut table. Entertaining is welcome, as long as it is true and it is yours.

This is the job

Before Livia Moreanu wrote our GR20 trail guide, she walked the route north to south in early September, fourteen days of it, including the afternoon a storm pinned her down at a refuge. The storm is in the guide because it happened, not because it made a good sentence.

When the subject is not a trail, the standard does not change. Our multi-day hiking nutrition guide is built on a sit-down interview with sports dietitian Nancy Clark, not on a summary of other people’s articles. That is what we will ask of you.

The deal

What we offer

Paid work. We pay market rates, based on your experience. We do not publish a rate card; it comes up early in the conversation, not after you have done the work.

Independence. No piece on this site is paid for by the thing it is about. We do not accept money, free products, or favors in exchange for coverage, and that applies to your work too. Nobody upstairs softens your conclusion, so if a trail, a service, or a piece of received wisdom disappoints you, you say so.

Your name on it. Every piece is published under your real name, with your byline and bio. Our readers trust what they read here because they can see who was standing there, and that credit is yours to keep building on.

Good company. You join a team of hikers, writers, and editors who care about getting it right, and an editor whose job is to make your piece better rather than blander.

The bar

Who we are looking for

The test we apply to every piece, including our own: could a chatbot have written this without the author existing? If yes, it does not go live, no matter how polished it is.
  • Extensive hiking experience across different terrains, seasons, and weather
  • Writing that is engaging and well structured, in plain first person
  • First-hand specifics: what happened, where, and what it cost you
  • Your own photos from the trail, not stock images
  • Numbers you measured yourself: distances, times, elevation, temperatures
  • Honesty about what went wrong, including the times it was your own fault

You do not need to be a professional writer or a sponsored athlete. You need to hike a lot, notice things, and be honest about them in writing. We can help with the rest. And to be plain about it: we would rather publish less than lower this bar.

Getting started

How to apply

Send us three things:

  1. A short cover letterYour hiking background, the terrain and trails you know best, and two or three pieces you would want to write for us.
  2. A writing sample1,000 to 3,000 words, existing or new: a trail guide, a trip report, or a how-to piece. Show us how you think, not just what you concluded.
  3. Your detailsName, email, and any relevant links: your blog, social profiles, or published work.

Send your application with the subject line “Join the team”.A real person reads every application.

Email your application

Applications that are clearly bulk-sent, AI-written, or from people who do not actually hike will not get a response. We know that is strict; your name goes on the piece, and our readers trust this site because of the people behind it.

Keep reading

Where to go from here

Next up Write For Us One story rather than a standing arrangement: the same bar and the same kind of writing, pitched and published as a single guest post. Or read About The hikers, writers, and editors you would be joining, and how a blog run from a few different countries got here.

The rules every published piece lives under are in our Editorial Standards. And if you are curious how the gear side of the site works, even though it is not this job, read How We Test.