Matt Jancer is a GearJunkie reporter. Matt has been writing about hiking, climbing, and outdoor gear for 15 years. Prior to that, Matt wrote for Outside, Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, and a load of other magazines. Based in New York City, Matt takes every opportunity he can to head into the backcountry for a week of solo hiking or mountaineering, even if he has to take a subway, a plane, and a car to get there.
Topics of Expertise: Mountaineering, Hiking, Camping, Rock Climbing, Outdoor Gear, Automotive, Off-Road, Motorcycle, Whitewater Paddling
Years in This Expertise: 18
Number of Products & Number of Hours Expert Has Tested: 1,000+ Products, 7,000+ Hours
Experience
Born on New York’s Long Island, Matt grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont region, nestled between its world-class beaches and achingly beautiful Appalachian Mountains, the whole state a network of playgrounds for sailing, off-roading, climbing, rafting, and hiking. Everywhere in North Carolina, even in the cities, nature felt so close.
Matt’s earliest gigs were in the automotive journalism space, writing for Popular Mechanics, Hot Rod, and Grassroots Motorsports. Always busy repairing an old car, usually something fast, his oldest love was all things gasoline. Whenever he has the time, he cruises the backroads on his motorcycle or in an old car, making up the flimsiest excuses to enjoy the open road. To this day, he still uses his lifetime of gearhead experience to cover automobiles and motorcycles, both classics and electric.
After eight years spent as a beach bum living at the beach in Wilmington, North Carolina, he moved to New York City for the chaos and better bagels. Living in his favorite urban death maze hasn’t slowed him down. If anything, he now hikes and climbs in locations even farther away, airfare being the one and only thing truly cheaper in New York.
From Alaska to Hawaii to Egypt to Vietnam, he’s indulged himself in off-road motorcycle tours, mountain climbing expeditions, and long solo hikes, the more remote the better. He often says that he’s only happy on the trail if he sees less than five people per day.
Matt was a latecomer to climbing, having taken advantage of the South’s beautiful network of fast-moving rivers to first get into whitewater rafting and kayaking. Then one day on a river in Virginia, he realized he was just not a natural at paddling. Sure, he could keep up with the group, but whereas everybody else looked as graceful and calm as a swan when they paddled through the rapids, he looked more like the Cookie Monster tearing through a pack of Oreos.
And so he traded his paddle for climbing chalk. Soon he was taking his first rock climbing lesson in 40-degree rain on North Carolinian granite slab. Nearly everyone quit by the second day. He was one of three who didn’t. Climbing felt more natural to him on that first day than years of paddling. From there, he moved into his true love, alpine mountaineering. Now he happily freezes on glaciers during whiteouts in the middle of July. His sister once told him, “Your vacations sound a lot like work.” That’s the idea.
Career Highlights
Completing a solo 1,300-mile torture test through Death Valley with the then brand-new Rivian R1T electric pickup truck
Spending 3 months embedded within New York City’s underground, illegal bareknuckle boxing circuit
Living through a month-long, 5,000-mile (mostly) off-road motorcycle trip through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
Education & Certifications
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, Journalism from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Years of Writing: 15
Certifications: Wilderness First Responder, CPR
Club or Association Memberships: American Alpine Club, National Outdoor Leadership School, Access Fund, NewsGuild
Previous Publications: Outside, Popular Mechanics, Esquire, Men’s Journal, The History Channel Magazine, Smithsonian, Car and Driver, Men’s Health, Popular Science, VICE, Afar, Automobile, Hot Rod, Playboy, WIRED, Road & Track, Garden & Gun, Grassroots Motorsports, Tonic, Snow’s Cut Monthly, Cruisin’ Carolina, E–The Environmental Magazine, and Better Report.
A Word From Matt Jancer
If you’d have asked me back in high school what I wanted to do for a living, I’d have shrugged and mumbled something about hoping that whatever it was, it’d better come with a lot of vacation time. But I read a lot, and I was hooked on monthly copies of Outside and Land Rover World, and books like Jupiter’s Travels and The Bang Bang Club. It dawned on me that people could make a living going on bonkers adventures and then writing about them.
And writing, I slowly learned, just felt right to me. Lurching myself into a freelance magazine writing career straight out of college, I figured I had no car payment, no mortgage, and nothing to lose by giving it a try. Something must’ve stuck, because I’ve been making a living at it for over 15 years and loving (almost) every minute of it. Oh yeah, and pigeons are completely underrated. Ask me why.
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