Benedict Walker was born in Newcastle. New South Wales, Australia, and grew up in the 'burbs spending weekends and long summers by the beach whenever possible. Although he is drawn magnetically to the kinds of mountains he encountered in the Canadian Rockies and the Japan and Swiss Alps, beach lite is in his blood. Japan was Benedict's first gig for Lonely Planet, in 2008/9, and he has been blessed to have been asked back three more times.
He has since worked on numerous Lonely Planet titles, including guides to Australia, Canada, Germany and the USA. He has also written and directed a play, toured Australia managing the travel logistics for major music festivals and played around with his original major of photography and film-making. Carolyn McCarthy specializes in travel, culture and adventure in the Americas. She has written for National Geographic.
Outside, BBC Magazine, Sierra Magazine, Boston Globe and other publications. A former Fulbright fellow and Banff Mountain Grant recipient, she has documented life in the most remote corners of Latin America. Carolyn has contributed to 40 guidebooks and anthologies for Lonely Planet, including Colorado, USA, Argentina, Chile, Trekking in the Patagonian Andes, Panama, Peru and USA National Parks guides.
Christopher Pitts was born in the year of the Tiger, and his first expedition in life ended in failure when he tried to dig from Pennsylvania to China at the age of six. Hardened by reality but still infinitely curious about the other sicle of the world, he went on to study Chinese in university, living for several years in Kunming, Taiwan and Shanghai. A chance encounter in an elevator led to a Paris relocation, where he lived with his wife and two children for over a decade before the Jure of Colorado's sunny skies and outdoor adventure proved too great to resist.