Overview Workshops Field Trips First Aid Navigation Sign-up & course description Go ONLINE for the Course registration opening date - continuing until the course fills or the start of Lecture #1 !! Additional costs are Mountaineers membership dues, Alpine First Aid  and Navigation course requirements. To use the online sign-up, click 'M' logo on left OR phone the Club at  206-521-6001 Online signup procedure : After getting the general Mountaineers home page, log in. To find our courses, click on the 'Explore' button, and hit 'Alpine Scrambling' on the dropdown menu. Change the default dates (usually the next 31 days) by checking the 'Everything in the future' box. Now select 'Seattle' in the Branch box, and 'Course' in the 'Category' box.Then click on the 'Search' button. Finally click 'Register' on the event you want, and follow along with that signup. [If there is no activity entry yet for the next course, please go to the 'Contact Us' page in this site and email the contacts for both the Course Workshops & Committee Chair].

About Alpine Scrambling

                The Alpine Scrambling course teaches essential techniques of off-trail wilderness travel needed for scaling snow and rock summits.  Alpine scrambling may at times involve unroped movement on and across low or moderately-exposed snow and rock terrain, but does not include roped climbing on high-angle, seriously-exposed technical rock faces, nor does it involve roped travel on crevassed glaciers.

                Although scrambling provides the means to climb somewhat less-exposed slopes without resort to the gear and techniques required to protect more-exposed slopes and faces, many technical routes still require the efficient use of competent scrambling skills on the approach to the roped climbing pitches.  Scrambling affords an excellent way to begin acquiring some of the skills, conditioning, gear, and mountaineering experiences that will serve you well in other climbing courses.
Many folk, however, find that the sheer variety of these trips provide them with all the mountain fun they enjoy without ever having to take technical roped classes.

Course Requirements in Brief:

                1.  Satisfactory completion of ALL  course workshops and ALL field trips. 

                2.  Attainment of a minimum of three scramble summits on separate trips on the Seattle Branch schedule, including at least one rock and one snow summit, while participating in all Club trips as a competent, well-conditioned, and adequately-equipped party member.

                3. Satisfactory and timely completion of two separate and additional courses in Backcountry Navigation and Alpine First Aid . 

                 You need to feel quite confident that you can commit to ALL course dates.  This is not a one-trip-to-the-gym, one-day-on-the-rock introduction to climbing.  This is a long-term course that teaches--and allows you to practice--complex skills in a realistic alpine setting.  The instructor-student ratio is high (often one instructor to three or four students).  Your instructors are skilled, enthusiastic, and committed to helping you acquire good scrambling skills.  They are active scramblers and climbers; many are graduates of Basic or more advanced courses and serve as scramble or climb leaders.  However, all of them are also unpaid volunteers.  Your course fee goes to meet the expenses of putting on the course, not to pay the instructors!  The lectures and field trips involve a significant organizational effort on the part of other volunteers, who need to coordinate schedules, gear, and permits.  It is very difficult to reschedule or “make up” a missed course event, particularly a field trip--please don’t count on being able to do so.

Gear and Clothing

                You will need a sturdy mountaineering daypack with several liters of water-carrying capacity (sturdy bottles or packs) and the Ten Essentials. Also,  several layers of suitable head-to-toe outdoor clothing (an inner “long underwear” layer, a middle insulating layer, and an outer water/wind resistant layer), gloves, socks and liners, gaiters, warm and sun/rain-protective headgear, sunglasses, and ankle-high heavy backpacking or mountaineering boots.  In addition, you will also need an alpine-style ice ax (not an ice-climbing “tool”) with leash, and a climb-rated protective rock helmet (not a bicycle, skateboarding, equestrian, or construction “hard hat”).

                If you have already done a fair amount of hiking, biking, backpacking, or camping, you may have many suitable items of clothing, although you may well need stiffer boots.  Until you have a better idea what you need and are fully committed to the course, you should be able to rent or borrow the more expensive items of gear.  You are advised not to go out and buy any new clothing or gear until you have attended the Intro/Equipment Lecture.  If you decide to purchase a brand-new daypack ($150-$250), heavier boots ($200-$300), and top-of-the-line name-brand clothing (several hundred dollars), in addition to the helmet and ice ax (plus/minus $50-$60 each), you could quickly run up a tab approaching a thousand dollars.  Make sensible use of non-mountaineering outdoor stores and the Internet before you burn your way through several paychecks at a more specialized store.

                Gear requirements : except for the ice ax and helmet, you won’t need ropes, a sit-harness, a belay device, or other technical climbing gear (a sling, one ‘biner, and some accessory cord will be explained as additional items at the Rock Lecture and Field Trip -  to assist downclimbing  in unusual situations. Other than the locking carabiner, this extra gear will be provided  by the committee, the cost  is included in the course fee). Individual scramble trips may at times (rarely), require snowshoes, crampons, or the use of mountain bikes, but again all these items can be rented for occasional use, or you may choose to ignore those events.

Physical Conditioning

                Scrambling and climbing in an alpine environment are not for everybody.  To participate in this course enjoyably and safely, by the time the Field Trips begin you will need to be: in good general health, in solid aerobic shape, and reasonably flexible.  You do not need to be in superlative condition, nor do you need to have massive upper body strength.  But you do need to be able to maintain a reasonable party pace while traveling 7-12 miles along trail and across some rugged terrain and gaining and losing several thousand feet in elevation, sometimes starting at a mile high or higher, all while carrying 25-35 pounds of pack and gear.

There is a wide range of trip ratings to fit the physical abilities of most hikers, from easy and moderate up to a few 'gut-busters' for the hard core !  Every year, a few people flunk the course--or defer it for a year--due to seriously inadequate conditioning.  If you are actively jogging, biking, hiking, etc., or if you are involved in a regular exercise program that includes a good aerobic workout routine (30 minutes to an hour, two to three times a week)--or if you can seriously commit yourself to beginning and pursuing such a program over the next several months--you will be fine.  If not, however, you will save yourself a lot of time and money--and save your instructors, leaders, and fellow scramblers a lot of unnecessary stress--by choosing a less-demanding recreational activity.