About
Diana Helmuth is the author of “How to Suffer Outside: a Beginner’s Guide to Hiking and Backpacking,” which won the National Outdoor Book Award for Best Instructional. Her writing generally focuses on travel, the man v. nature struggle, spirituality and human connection. Her second book “The Witching Year: A Memoir of Earnest Fumbling Through Modern Witchcraft,” was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and was a Goodreads Choice Nominee for Best Memoir of 2023. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Experience
Helmuth began backpacking with her mother in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when she was 15. From there, she enrolled in a Marin County high school program called Team, which focused on teaching students backpacking skills, wilderness medicine and outdoor leadership. Since then, she has backpacked extensively across the coasts, deserts and mountain ranges of California, as well as the slot canyons of Arizona, the Tyrolean Alps, Torres del Paine and Puyehue in Patagonia, and Olympic and Rainier National Parks in Washington state. She occasionally tests packs and contributes freelance articles to Outdoor Life.
Education
Diana graduated from UC Berkeley and The American University in Cairo with a BA in Anthropology.
