Rowell was also a highly regarded writer on subjects ranging from photography, humanitarian and environmental issues, human visual cognition, and mountaineering, publishing numerous magazine articles and eighteen books in his lifetime.
[citation needed] As an energetic advocate for the causes in which he believed, Rowell served on multiple advisory and directors' boards for organizations ranging from the Committee of 100 for Tibet to the World Wildlife Fund.
His primary medium was color slide film, beginning with Kodachrome in the late 1960s through the 1980s, and Fuji Velvia following its introduction in 1990.
Galen Rowell mastered the technique of using balanced fill flash, allowing him to subtly lighten the deepest shadows to match the relatively narrow dynamic range of color reversal film.
Rowell, his wife – photographer, author and pilot Barbara Cushman Rowell – pilot Tom Reid, and Reid's friend Carol McAffee were all killed in a plane crash in Inyo County near Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop, California, at 01:23 am on August 11, 2002.
The Rowells were returning from a photography workshop in the Bering Sea area of Alaska on a flight that had originated in Oakland, California.
[8][9] The Rowells' business, Mountain Light Photography Gallery in Bishop, California, continued to operate (owned by Galen's children Nicole Ryan and Tony Rowell, and Barbara's brother Robert Cushman) until October 2017, first under General Manager and Curator Justin Black until June 2009, and subsequently under General Manager Kevin Calder until 2017.