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THE PATHS
WE FORGE
AMANDA MONTHEI
STORIES ABOUT FIRE
Amanda Monthei woke up on a mountain ridgeline in Utah and climbed out of her sleeping bag to admire a smoky sunrise. She and her companions ate a breakfast of military MRE rations, hoisted their backpacks, and hiked toward the raging wildfire four miles away.
Having spent several years fighting wildfire across the American West, including two seasons on an elite Hotshot crew based in Mt. Hood Oregon, some of her clearest memories are of being camped out in rugged and beautiful places like that Utah ridgeline followed by long morning hikes into fires. Now, she's a few years removed from her Hotshot days, but as a freelance journalist and podcaster based in Bellingham, Washington, her life still revolves around wildfire. Amanda's become a go-to writer and interviewer diving deep into stories about all things related to wildfire for publications like The Washington Post and Outside Magazine—and the podcast she hosts called Life with Fire.
She first got into firefighting almost on a whim, signing up for wildland firefighting classes while in college at Northern Michigan University after seeing female firefighters posting their experiences on Instagram. Her interest in writing, though, goes back much further. "I was always obsessed with documenting what was going on in my life," she says. "Starting in third grade, I was always journaling. I was always taking photos."
Having spent several years fighting wildfire across the American West, including two seasons on an elite Hotshot crew based in Mt. Hood Oregon, some of her clearest memories are of being camped out in rugged and beautiful places like that Utah ridgeline followed by long morning hikes into fires. Now, she's a few years removed from her Hotshot days, but as a freelance journalist and podcaster based in Bellingham, Washington, her life still revolves around wildfire. Amanda's become a go-to writer and interviewer diving deep into stories about all things related to wildfire for publications like The Washington Post and Outside Magazine—and the podcast she hosts called Life with Fire.
She first got into firefighting almost on a whim, signing up for wildland firefighting classes while in college at Northern Michigan University after seeing female firefighters posting their experiences on Instagram. Her interest in writing, though, goes back much further. "I was always obsessed with documenting what was going on in my life," she says. "Starting in third grade, I was always journaling. I was always taking photos."
In college she started to find her niche writing about the outdoors. She published a lot of work about skiing and fly fishing before even trying to tackle writing about fire. She still loves writing about these things; the stuff she writes about skiing and fishing is more fun for her because it feels like lower stakes than writing about something as intense as wildfire. But she felt compelled to start writing about fire, just as she'd felt compelled to become a firefighter.
"Working in fire wasn't easy," she says. "It became really formative in terms of who I am now. So, it was natural to start writing about it. I started doing journal entry type blogs my first season. Eventually that led to getting a little more attention on these personal projects I was doing on my website that I wasn't getting paid for, which led to a few magazines and publications taking a risk in allowing me to write for them."
Through scrappiness, grit, and dedication to her craft, she built a successful career as a freelance writer. There were so many topics related to wildfire that she wanted to cover ranging from firefighter safety, to the necessity of prescribed burning, to the historical importance of fire on the world's ecosystems—too many topics, in fact. She just didn't have the time necessary to do them all justice. When she told her friends about the dilemma, their response was it sounds like you have a podcast. Amanda describes this as a lightbulb moment.
Through scrappiness, grit, and dedication to her craft, she built a successful career as a freelance writer. There were so many topics related to wildfire that she wanted to cover ranging from firefighter safety, to the necessity of prescribed burning, to the historical importance of fire on the world's ecosystems—too many topics, in fact. She just didn't have the time necessary to do them all justice. When she told her friends about the dilemma, their response was it sounds like you have a podcast. Amanda describes this as a lightbulb moment.
Though she'd never worked in an audio medium, she dove headfirst into podcasting a couple of years ago. She credits the interviewing skills she honed as a journalist for letting her find success in the audio format.
"Every week I talk to somebody who's smarter than I am," she humbly says. "Then I slap an intro on it, slap an outro on it, put it out into the world, and people listen."
That's not to say her path has been easy. That initial decision to enroll in firefighting classes took some guts, since none of her family or friends had any experience with it. Firefighting itself was never easy, and the parts of the job she thought of as exciting were only a small percentage of how she spent her time. Much of it, she says, she spent "mopping up" after fires were mostly out. "You're literally walking in a line, touching the ground, getting so filthy, and digging up any hot spots," she explains. "…You're just stirring up hot, smoky dirt until it goes out. Really not glorious."
She says that before she got into fire she felt a little lost, like she wasn't getting anywhere with her writing and not doing anything special enough to get into some of the bigger publications that were her goal. Finding her way as a freelancer has been difficult as well, and her wildfire niche has helped her find success on the national level.
"All of freelance writing is forging your own path," she says. "Every single day you're making a choice of what kind of work do I want to be doing? How can I make that happen? Who can I pitch to make that happen? When you're first starting out with freelancing especially, you're just throwing stuff into the void, hoping something sticks."
Across every aspect of her career and her life, though, Amanda tries to find balance. After all, one of the biggest reasons she got into fire was that she loves spending time outside. For all the heavy, deeply researched wildfire pieces she writes, there's also fun essays about good times in nature—stuff about fly fishing, skiing, and spending time outdoors with friends.
Amanda credits her home of Bellingham, Washington in helping her achieve the balance she seeks. She likes being able to follow up a day spent writing about wildfire with a nice hike in the rain, a mountain bike ride, a session fishing for steelhead, or some skiing at nearby Mount Baker. "It's a really good place to be able to pull myself away from my work," she says. "So yeah, I love it here."
Amanda credits her home of Bellingham, Washington in helping her achieve the balance she seeks. She likes being able to follow up a day spent writing about wildfire with a nice hike in the rain, a mountain bike ride, a session fishing for steelhead, or some skiing at nearby Mount Baker.
"It's a really good place to be able to pull myself away from my work," she says. "So yeah, I love it here."
While her mornings spent hiking smoky ridgelines toward fire with a Hotshot crew may be over, her days spent thinking about fire certainly are not. Neither are her nights spent camped in wild and beautiful places, waking up early to catch the sunrise.
Amanda credits her home of Bellingham, Washington in helping her achieve the balance she seeks. She likes being able to follow up a day spent writing about wildfire with a nice hike in the rain, a mountain bike ride, a session fishing for steelhead, or some skiing at nearby Mount Baker. "It's a really good place to be able to pull myself away from my work," she says. "So yeah, I love it here."
While her mornings spent hiking smoky ridgelines toward fire with a Hotshot crew may be over, her days spent thinking about fire certainly are not. Neither are her nights spent camped in wild and beautiful places, waking up early to catch the sunrise.
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