Activity Overviews
Our goal is to get you outside exploring new places and finding new challenges. Trips like hiking, backpacking, and naturalist activities are less technical and open to everyone. Trips that are more technical - like climbing, backcountry skiing, and sea kayaking - often have skill prerequisites to ensure everyone is safe and has the skills needed to successfully participate in the activity.
Most of our activities are free of charge after membership. Trip participants are required to make sure they have the correct parking pass for the area they are visiting. Not sure which parking pass is needed? Check the Land Manager listed on the trip and consult our Parking Passes & Wilderness Restrictions page.
The Mountaineers encourages carpooling for all our activities and courses. Often, leaders will list park and rides en route to the trip to facilitate carpooling. Once you register for an activity, you can also reach out to other participants on the trip via email to coordinate rides. To learn more, visit our Good Carpooling Practices page.
You may see some trips listed with a Leaders Permission prerequisite. Learn more about when and why leaders require Leader's Permission for their trips.
The Mountaineers offers courses, clinics, and seminars year round to teach you skills and get you further. Whether you’re looking for an introductory seminar or an intensive course, our instructional programs can help you get outside. With seven branches in western Washington, we’ll teach you the outdoor skills needed to enjoy the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Check out when our introductory courses typically open for registration and begin instruction, based on three years of course listing data.
- 75% of introductory courses are posted between September and January each year, so if you join in the spring or summer, you may not see as many courses open. Check back in the fall!
- Some of our courses have co-requisites (courses you need to complete in order to graduate). Navigation and Wilderness First Aid are the most common, and can be completed before or during other courses.
- Many courses are offered through multiple branches, but not every course is offered at every branch. You do not need to be affiliated with a branch to take a course with that branch.
- Equivalency programs to help you test out of courses and jump right into our activities. Go to the badge page for the course/skill you are interested in to learn about equivalency.
- We also offer many intermediate and advanced courses and one-off seminars and workshops. These are not reflected on this calendar.
- You can set your notification preferences on your profile to alert you as soon as courses are posted.
Click on the activity type you'd like to explore to find brief overviews of our primary offerings and what skills are required.
