Devon O’Neil is a freelance journalist based in Breckenridge, Colorado, and the author of The Way Out: A true story of survival in the Heart of the Rockies, published in November 2025 by HarperOne. In the past he has worked as a daily newspaperman, a staff writer for ESPN.com, and a correspondent for Outside magazine. O’Neil’s stories have been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing and noted in The Best American Sports Writing, and twice have been finalists for national awards in civic journalism. 

O’Neil grew up on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands and spent two years living aboard a sailboat. He studied psychology at Middlebury College and played four years of NCAA football and baseball. During the winter he moonlights as a hutmaster, helping to maintain a network of backcountry cabins above 11,000 feet.