Phillip Finch is a journalist and author of more than ten books, both novels and non-fiction. He began his professional life as a 19-year-old reporter for the Washington Daily News; he moved on to the San Francisco Examiner and later became a front-page columnist for the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto. Formerly a member of an alpine search-and-rescue team, he has had a long interest in extreme sports and the people who pursue them. He is also an experienced cave diver.