Matthew was born and raised in the Salt Lake valley. He grew up camping, hiking, hunting, and doing other outdoors activities all over Utah. He has a large family where he is the fourth child of six in his family.

Much of his time in early childhood, he grew up in scouts, taking multiple weeklong backpacking trips in the Uintah Mountains, and in adulthood, moved on to conquering peaks and dabbling in various outdoor sports.

Matt has a keen interest in social work due to his mother working as a therapist. In the past two years his focus on outdoor learning and growth started his journey in November of 2022 at a wilderness program on the other side of the Manti-La Sal Mountain. He then transitioned to Elements in the summer of 2023.