James Dziezynski Biography
James came into this crazy world a day before tax-day on April 14th, 1976. As a native son of the former industrial powerhouse of Waterbury, Connecticut it took a while for James to find his way out to the mountains of Colorado. Actually, New England was a wonderful place to grow up; between the endless hours of exploration in the wilderness and the yearly visits to the coast of Maine, there was plenty of adventure to ignite visions of future journies. Along the way, lifelong passions developed including a love of writing, a genuine respect for video games and technology, a fondness for sports of all kinds and of course, exploring in the outdoors.
After graduating from Wolcott High School in 1994, James attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY where he graduated with degrees in English Literature and Philosophy in 1998. More importantly, these years were great times for mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking and mountaineering in New England and upstate NY. Inspired by wonderful friends and professors and supported by his family, James took a life-changing NOLS mountaineering course in the summer of 1998 in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. A taste of the west was all that was needed and a year later, James moved permanently to Boulder, Colorado where he has worked as a writer, author and editor for several publications over the years.
His writing has appeared in several major publications including: Outside, Backpacker, Hooked on the Outdoors, The Boulder Weekly, Mountain Biking, Apex to Zenith, and Electronic Gaming Monthly. He also has strong web presence, submitting several gaming guides to sites such as Gamefaqs.com and writing for dozens of other websites such as HowStuffWorks.com, Backpacker Online, Gaiam Life, Natural Habitat Adventure's Good Nature, Explorer's Corner, and serves as the local Colorado expert for Nileguide.com. His first book Best Summit Hikes in Colorado was published in 2007 by Wilderness Press and he has contributed to The Joy of Backpacking by Brian Beffort.
James has traveled extensively including trips to the high Arctic and Greenland, many of the known (and less-known) Caribbean Islands, Mexico, South America, Canada and pretty much everywhere in the USA. Besides being a strong hiker and mountaineer, James is also a member of the US Highpointers Club and has climbed an average of 60 peaks per year since moving to Colorado in 1999.
James currently lives in Boulder with beautiful cat Xanadu and continues to work on writing projects. Besides writing, James enjoys composing and recording music (but please, please never ask him to sing), playing guitar, ultimate frisbee, baseball, volleyball, mountain biking, bike touring, kayaking, collecting and playing vintage video games, writing FAQs and guides for video games of all eras, World War One history, humanism, modernist and war poetry, navigation, GPS technology, and animal rights.