Years in This Expertise: 8 yrs in outdoor media, 4 years as GearJunkie’s Hunt Fish Editor (2018-2022)
Number Of Products & Number Of Hours Expert Has Tested: 500+ products, 8,300+ hours testing
Education & Certifications
Education: Bachelor’s of Sociology, Colorado State University
Years of Writing: 14+
Club or Association Memberships: Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Board Director of Orion the Hunters Institute
Previous Publications: USA Today, MeatEater, Modern Huntsman, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Backcountry Journal, Mens Journal, Outside Bozeman, TripThirty
A Word from Nicole
When I started writing for GearJunkie in 2018, it opened up a whole new universe of curiosities. A thrifty minimalist, gear was a means to an end rather than an obsession. To be frank, I was more of a gear skeptic than a gear junkie.
But as the site’s Hunt Fish Editor, testing brand after brand and item after item forced me to pare down to the gear that made the cut. And that’s really what I love to write about. When it comes to a review, a suggestion, a collection of gear, or simply the experience of using gear to get the job done, it better be damned useful and worth its weight in financial commitment.
I value gear differently than I did when I first began writing about it. Us gearheads get so wrapped in the idea of stuff, but it can also weigh us down.
Ultimately, I’m still a thrifty minimalist, but the gear I write about and the brands I talk about have a place in my gear closet because of that these days, rather than in spite of it. And I hope you hear that theme echo across this collection of many years of writing.
Packing mules and horses is a tradition as old as domestication of the equine sort. GearJunkie’s Nicole Qualtieri spent a weekend digging into the American…
Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate writes a visual love story to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It remains under the looming threat of a foreign copper-nickel…
With COVID restrictions redefining public spaces across the country, most states have moved hunter education to an online model. And some are offering free tuition.
Through guided river trips, Jessica and Sammy Matsaw have created a corridor of connection for their tribal youth and people through their project, River Newe. A…
The Quality Deer Management Association and National Deer Alliance will unify into a single new group focused on the conservation of America’s deer populations and…
Amid the controversy of a supposed ‘accidental’ aerial landing in Montana wilderness, a coming bill could lift the maximum fine for lawbreakers to $20,000.
Two Black women are launching a digital platform that will locate Black-friendly businesses across the country, aiding our fellow Black citizens in remaining as safe…
Duck hunter Albertine Kimble leads us through her home of the Plaquemines Parish, talks to ducks, and explains why the river means life and protection…
