Morgan Tilton

• Title: GearJunkie Senior Editor, SnowSports Buyer’s Guides; GearJunkie Affiliate Managing Editor (Acting)
• Email: mtilton@allgeardigital.com
• Location: Crested Butte, CO
• Social Media: @motiltonLinkedInFacebook@morgantilton
• Pronouns: She/her/hers

Expertise

• Topics of Expertise: Snowboarding, splitboarding, skiing, snowmobiling, mountain biking, SUPing, Colorado 14ers, adventure travel, solo travel 
• Years in This Expertise: 31

Experience

Tilton has worked with GearJunkie for more than a decade, starting as a reporter before joining the team as the Affiliate Managing Editor (Acting) and Senior Editor of SnowSports Buyer’s Guides. Raised in Southwest Colorado, Tilton’s life revolves around winter sports, which she’s loved since first pulling on ski boots at age four at her home area, Telluride Ski Resort. Her passion for adventure travel led to her recent accolade as the 2025 North American Travel Journalist of the Year.

While enrolled at the University of Denver, Tilton worked for many adventure travel publications including AllTrips.com and Backpacker Magazine. She also completed her AIARE, the first of many outdoor-related certifications she’s pursued beyond three degrees. 

While she still avidly rides inbounds, Tilton explores the backcountry, pulls on skis, and snowmobiles in addition to countless hours of shoveling in Crested Butte, Colo., which is home.  

Career Highlights

• Writing about four friends’ and my first descent of the wild Escalante River on SUP (self-supported), including a multi-award-winning cover feature. Read about our journey here, here, here, and here.
• When the former EIC of Encompass Magazine said that one of the greatest stories they’d ever published was my essay about a motorcycle trip with my dad, “Safety Circuit in the Desert,” who passed away in 2022.
• Representing the Adventure Travel Trade Association as a U.S. ambassador in Tohoku, Japan, in 2025; as well as Canada and Jordan in 2018. I published “Jordan Travel: 5 Adventures You Can’t Miss” with GearJunkie. Flip through the other stories here, here, here, and here.
• A solo Belize expedition through the world’s oldest jaguar preserve to reach Victoria Peak, leading to the “Search for Big Cats in the Jungles of Belize” in the January 2020 print issue of Backpacker Magazine. Read more here. 
• Experiencing the West’s wildest whitewater, including the Jarbidge-Bruneau and the Middle Fork of the Salmon. 
• Running with the Tarahumara in Copper Canyon, Mexico. Read the stories here and here.  
• Following the 2016 Javelina Jundred play-by-play, realizing an unknown woman was in the lead, I wrote the profile that opened the world’s eyes to Courtney Dauwalter. Read the OG story on GearJunkie. 
• Experiencing the first-ever helicopter-supported mountain running adventures in North America. I wrote about it for GearJunkie and here.

Education & Certifications

• Education: Bachelor of Arts, three degrees – Italian, English Creative Writing, Journalism – University of Denver
• Years of Writing: 14+
• Certifications: Yale School of Public Health Climate Change and Health Program Certificate; SAS Snowmobile Recreational Level 1 course; AIARE 2 Recreational Course; AIARE Avalanche Rescue Course; AIARE 1 Recreational Course; Wilderness First Responder; Adult, and Child CPR & Airway Management; Epinephrine Auto-injector
• Club or Association Memberships: Adventure Travel Trade Association, Crested Butte Avalanche Center, North American Travel Journalists Association 
• Awards or Recognitions: 2025 North American Travel Journalist of the Year, 18 North American Travel Journalists Association awards, Silver Award – Society of American Travel Writers Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards Competition, Honorable Mention for the Academy of American Poets’ 2012 Edward M. Lanna Poetry Prize
• Previous Publications: Contributed to 90+ publications

A Word From Morgan Tilton 

I started pursuing a path as a writer when I was 15 years old, but I’ve always been a writer. As an adventure journalist in the outdoor and travel industries, my focus is sustainable storytelling that supports local communities and amplifies its narratives. Gear is an extension of that mission.

As a young competitive snowboarder, I was frustrated with the narrow representation of females in SnowSports and the media. Reviews existed for products made and tested by men, though hardly any women-specific products were available, and zero female reporters were visible. I’m excited to help change that fact.

I’m proud to work with GearJunkie and our team of ambitious, creative, hard-working journalists.