Skip Card grew up in Washington state, where at a young age he began eagerly exploring the Pacific Northwest’s beaches, forests, and foothills. His love of hiking and nature eventually evolved into an interest in mountaineering: he has climbed most of the Northwest’s highest peaks, including 14,410-foot Mount Rainier.

A newspaperman since 1986, Skip worked for many years as the outdoors reporter for The News Tribune in his hometown of Tacoma, where his work earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He often shot the photographs that accompanied his outdoors stories, particularly when his research took him to remote places. He was a copy editor and headline writer at the New York Post from 2005 until 2010, and his freelance work has appeared in magazines ranging from Outside to New York Family. He is the coauthor of the hiking guide Best Rain Shadow Hikes: Western Washington, and contributed to the second edition of Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide. Today, he is a frequent contributor to the website InsideSchools.org, where he reviews New York City public schools and writes the “Elementary Dad” column.

During a visit to New York in 2002, Skip met the woman who would later lure him permanently to the city. Married in 2004, Skip and Jean Margaret Card now live with their daughter on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. They are regular weekend visitors to Woodstock, NY.