Russ Schneider was born in Helena, Montana and grew up fishing the mountain lakes and streams of the Beartooths, the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone, and the North Fork Lakes of Glacier National Park. Russ also grew up hiking the wilds of the West.

Russ worked on his first FalconGuide in 1992 with a revision of one of the original books that started it all The Hiker’s Guide to Montana. Now titled Hiking Montana it became one of the first and most successful FalconGuides ever published. Russ was pictured on the original cover at age six, backpacking with his father and author/co-founder of Falcon Publishing, Bill Schneider, the original FalconGuide. As Bill’s son, he has benefited from many hiking trips over the years and now carries most of the weight when they backpack together.

Russ left Montana during his college years to Portland, Oregon to attend Reed College. While earning a degree in Economics at Reed, Russ authored Hiking the Columbia River Gorge, hiking every maintained (and many unmaintained trails) in the Columbia River Gorge. Russ maintains a special place for the Gorge and returns regularly to enjoy the waterfall magic and keep his FalconGuides fresh.

As a veteran hiker, guide, and author, Russ loves showing people the land. Among other interesting and challenging things Russ has done over the years, he has worked off and on as a Hiking, Fishing, and Rafting Guide for Glacier Wilderness Guides in West Glacier, Montana since 1994 (glacierguides.com). Russ led groups of tourists on fishing, backpacking, and overnight wilderness trips, while maintaining motivation and positive group dynamics. He underwent leadership and swift water rescue training to handle difficult life or death situations. Russ was and still is trusted as one of the few guides qualified to run all types of trips and the most important tours and clients.

In addition to Hiking the Columbia River Gorge, Russ authored Fishing Glacier National Park, Your Complete Guide to over 250 Streams, Rivers, and Mountain Lakes Throughout Glacier National Park. Russ took a lot of pride and research into putting together what is now the main public resource for detailing fishing information in Glacier National Park. Russ worked closely with his late father-in-law Monty Parrott who grew up fishing on Saint Mary Lake in the park to enhance the book with historical photos, including a picture of a 42-pound lake trout. The existing state record lake trout out of Flathead Lake is about the same weight.

Russ authored Backpacking Tips, which included 400 tips and extensive pre-and post-trip checklists from FalconGuide authors, representing thousands of miles of on-trail experience hiking in America. This most recent edition includes many new and updated tips from both the original FalconGuide Bill Schneider, author of over 20 books on hiking and backpacking; and 10-year veteran backpacking guide, Russ Schneider. It also includes detailed backpacking checklists to help you select your gear and make sure you get everything for a safe enjoyable backpacking trip no matter the weather.

Russ is also an active editor and contributor to many other FalconGuides. Russ has also done quite a bit of revision work on FalconGuides including revising Fishing Montana, Basic Essentials of Backpacking, 3rd Edition, Best Hikes along the Continental Divide, The Wilderness Directory, and of course Hiking Montana several times.

Russ revised and edited a series of outdoor how-to books, which over time produced total sales in excess of 300,000 copies. As a series editor, he created, developed, and edited a series of outdoor books. Books in the series include: Bear Aware, Wilderness First Aid, Leave No Trace, Mountain Lion Alert, Wilderness Survival, Backpacking Tips, Avalanche Aware, Reading Weather, Route Finding, Hiking with Dogs.

Russ helps his dad out with project editing on FalconGuides. Although Bill plays a lot and is semi-retired from his former post at the helm of Falcon, he enjoys working with authors and helping Executive Editor Scott Adams with keeping the front-list train moving and expanding new and challenging FalconGuides. Russ formerly served as acquisitions editor and served on the FalconGuides brand development committee helping launch FalconGuides as the premier outdoor guidebook brand. Russ has many years of professional editing and writing experience including project editing with authors, serving on brand development committees, and helping market a successful merchandising rack program. Over the years, in small and large ways, Russ has helped the FalconGuides outdoor-guidebook brand become the most dominant outdoor book brand on the market.

Since, 2001 Russ has also served as on the Board of the Glacier Natural History Association in West Glacier, Montana, using his experience in publishing and book sales to help oversee book sales at park visitor centers and the return of proceeds to worthwhile projects that benefit Glacier National Park and enhance the educational and natural history products available to park visitors. Russ has six years of experience on the Board, which manages book sales at all park service-owned outlets in Glacier National Park and supervises a staff and budget of a million dollar not-for-profit association with an excellent stable track record, and excellent executive director and staff. The Glacier Natural History Association is a longtime member of the Association for Partners Public Lands and highly regarded by its peers.