Junior MAC - Olympia

Note: Junior Mountaineers Adventure Club (Junior MAC) membership is $550 in total for the 2023/2024 course. Participants may register here and pay in full, or may contact clairee@mountaineers.org to set up a quarterly payment plan. 

We offer financial assistance! To apply for financial assistance click here.

The Jr. MAC Course provides youth ages 8-13 an opportunity to dial in their climbing, hiking, camping, backpacking, and snowshoeing skills. The goal is to understand basic rock climbing skills, develop a sense of understanding how to climb outdoors, assess risk, and understand personally boundaries when working with a group. 

Jr. MAC members will spend the fall months  working on their skills and climbing once a month to practice skills learned in monthly meetings. Once we enter into the winter session in January, we will climb indoors, practice glacier travel in snow, and snowshoe. When the weather allows for it, we will plan camping trips in the spring and into early summer. 

Jr. MAC will be supported by Mountaineers staff, but parents are encouraged to actively participate and possibly even lead some trips if they feel ready. Staff will provide opportunities for parents to advance their own outdoor skills as well as learn key skills for leading kids safely in the outdoors. This program will focus on skill-building for both youth and adults, and on building an outdoor community.

*Note that while  parents/guardians are encouraged to be active participants in the club, there is plenty of flexibility so that youth can participate in a trip even if a parent/guardian can't make it.

Jr. MAC is a club and requires a time commitment and program fee (which can be paid in quarterly installments). In return, members gain a community of outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy spending time learning skills together. As families grow through our programs, lifelong friendships are built. When graduates of our teen program come home from college, they meet up with other Mountaineers friends to go hiking, backpacking and climbing. This program is just the beginning.

Note: Youth ages 8-13  register as participants, and therefore pay the registration and program fee. Parents should become a Qualified Youth Leader and then register for the Jr. MAC program as a  Chaperone (there is no fee for this).