Sports Advice

Who Reads Backpacker?
Backpacker is written for readers who love outdoor adventure. Backpacker readers are serious about their passion for the outdoors, whether it be a simple day hike or an all out backpacking trek. Published 9 times a year, Backpacker provides expert information on the best trails in America, including GPS coordinates to get readers to the most remote and beautiful places nature has to offer.

In 2008, Backpacker teamed up with San Francisco based firm Cooler to calculate their carbon footprint. Realizing that they were putting 5 million pounds of CO2 into the air each year, Backpacker took measures to reduce their carbon footprint, and combined with investment in renewable energy, has efficiently become a carbon neutral publication.

What You Can Expect in Each Issue:
Readers can look forward to reading Basecamp, which stuffs exactly what readers need without an extra ounce of verbiage. The Basecamp section includes:

• Tripfinder: Match three different destinations with three different timeframes to determine your best adventure trip.
• 5 Minute Meals: Taste-tested recipes to make backcountry cooking easier.
• Life List: A concise, inspiring description of everything you need to pull off a once in a lifetime trip.
• Start Smart: Where new hikers come to learn essential camping skills.
• The Next Level: More experienced readers can learn advanced, multi-sport skills.
• Features: Ranging from Backpacker's stories of adventures on America's trails to gear reviews. The annual Gear Guide with over 250 reviews is always popular with readers. Other recent features have been a Life List of 47 must-do trips and 15 amazing flora a fauna spectacles.

Past Issues:

Magazine Layout:
The editors strive to pack as much information as possible into each issue. The layout offers beautiful landscape photography related to articles. Readers will also find the illustrated diagrams helpful and intuitive to follow.

Comparisons to Other Magazines:
Backpacker is for the ultimate adventurers. Other magazines in its class tend to focus more on camping and casual outdoor activity, while Backpacker covers everything from the simple day hike to the most extreme mountain treks.

Advertising:
Readers can expect to find the advertising specific to the outdoor and recreation industry. Most ads relate to either backpacking gear or foods, with the occasional automobile or travel ad geared towards the adventurous consumer.

Awards:
In 2006, Backpacker won a prestigious National Magazine Award. Backpacker's Basecamp department was honored as the best magazine section within the industry. In 2007, Backpacker was named a National Magazine Award Finalist in the Single-Topic Issue category, which honored the ambition, comprehensiveness and imagination of the recent "Survival" issue.