Jack Turner was educated at the University of Colorado and Cornell University and taught philosophy at the University of Illinois. Since 1975, he has traveled in India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Tibet, Bhutan, and Peru, leading more that forty treks and expeditions. He has lived in Grand Teton National Park for the past twenty-two years and teaches mountaineering during the summers at Exum Mountain Guides. He is the author of a collection of essays, The Abstract Wild, and a forthcoming account of travels in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.