Shawn Lyons considers himself lucky to have matched his avocations with his vocations. As such, he makes his living as a classical guitarist playing in local restaurants as well as at weddings and parties, as a part-time instructor of Guitar and Literature and Composition at the University of Alaska, and as a part-time writer. In the last, he writes about the local music scene as well as, to a far greater degree, his hikes and scrambles in the mountains of Alaska. Shawn began his hiking and scrambling, however, long before he moved to Alaska. Growing up in the Boston area, he spent his early years wandering in the White Mountains. At the age of 17, he hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine and, at the age of 18, hiked the Long Trail from Massachusetts to Canada. Since moving to Alaska, he has continued to hike and climb extensively. Nor is this all he does in the outdoors. As an ultra-athlete, he won the Iditashoe wilderness snowshoe race nine times, and the 100-mile Coldfoot Classic (held each year on Halloween above the Arctic Circle) three times. Shawn's narratives about his hikes and races often appear in hiking/climbing column that he writes for the Anchorage Daily News and Coast. He has also published three hiking guides - A Walk-About Guide to Alaska, Volumes I, II, and III - for South Central Alaska.