Climbing

Climbing

All posts

10 Essential Questions: Deling Ren

Each week we bring you a personal story from one of our members. For our member profile this week we talked to... Read more…

Valley of Giants: An Excerpt from Lynn Hill

Many books have been written about mountain adventurers of the male persuasion. The accomplishments of women? Not so much. As a mission-focused, nonprofit publisher, Mountaineers Books is committed to broadly sharing the transformative power of the outdoors from unique perspectives. Read more…

Become a Rope Climb Leader - Sign Up For Our Modular Intermediate Program

Have you taken the Basic Alpine Climbing Course or the Basic Glacier Travel course? Are you interested in continuing your climbing journey with The Mountaineers? Join the Intermediate Climbing program and become a rope climb leader next year! Read more…

Apply Now! Alpine Ambassadors Ice Skills Development - Canmore 2022

We invite you to apply for this winter's Alpine Ambassadors ice climbing program in Canmore! The program will help you develop more advanced ice climbing skills on challenging terrain with support from each other, skilled volunteers, and professional guides. Volunteers from all branches are invited to participate in this innovative, aspirational program, which seeks to infuse The Mountaineers with deeper skills and inspiration to give back.   Read more…

Top 10 Trip Reports - September 2021

Leaves are changing, temperatures are dropping, and the air is feeling crisp. No matter how you decide to enjoy autumn, there’s one thing we can all agree on: We’re lucky to live in a place where fall is this awesome. Read more…

Youth Outside | The Impact of MAC

From climbing Mount Baker to cragging weekends at Smith Rock, members of our teen club, The Mountaineers Adventure Club (MAC), have been busy this past year! Backpacking, cross-country skiing, and alpine climbing are just a few activities these active outdoorspeople have ticked off. Read more…

Valley of Giants: The First Anthology on the Women Climbers of Yosemite - Event Postponed

Women have always been at the center of Yosemite, climbing on the walls, crafting their own equipment, establishing new routes, and showing us all what it means to dance with rock. Lynn Hill freed the Nose, Beth Rodden established the hardest single pitch climb in the Valley, and Sylvia Vidal raised the bar for hard aid solos. More recently, Libby Sauter, Josie McKee, and Quinn Brett completed mind-blowing speed ascents and link-ups, and Chelsea Griffie became the first African American woman to climb El Cap. Read more…

Our Glaciers, Our Friends

I first set foot on Mount Baker’s Coleman Glacier in August of 1972, accompanied by my friend Mary Bramble. Mary and I met two years before climbing Glacier Peak with the Mazamas, and had done some hiking and climbing since. ‘72 was also the year I had begun climbing outside the club (to the anxiety of my parents), with friends who possessed the same desire to lead climb on more difficult peaks. Read more…

From Student to Teacher: Uplifting Future Mountaineers Leaders

Meryl Lassen (she/they) is a 7-year member, Super Volunteer, and member of our Equity & Inclusion Working Group. She has written about her personal journey to find belonging in the outdoors, and she’s an outspoken supporter of The Mountaineers efforts to create a community where all people feel belonging. Read more…

Top 10 Trip Reports - August 2021

Unsurprisingly, August was a busy time for The Mountaineers community. From the looks of these trip reports, it’s clear that we are all reveling in the ongoing late summer weather that affords such tremendous outdoor opportunities here in the mountains and waters of the Pacific Northwest. Read more…

10 Essential Questions: Twyla Sampaco

Get to know this week's member spotlight! Read more…

First All-Black American Expedition to Everest Set to Make History

“Almost 60 years after the first successful American ascent of Mount Everest, a team of U.S. climbers aims to make history once again on the world’s highest peak. Led by Phil Henderson, a former instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School and a veteran  mountaineer, this group, made up of athletes from across the country, aspires to be the first all-Black American expedition to reach the summit.” wrote James Edward Mills, Mountaineers Books Author and freelance journalist, in an article for Outside Business Journal announcing the project in late August 2021. Read more…

Moving Through the Mountains at 67: Tips for Older Climbers and Outdoor Athletes

Steve Swenson and Scott Johnston, both 67, have a combined 103 years of climbing between them. Steve is still making first ascents in the Karakoram, and Scott is an active climber and co-founder of Uphill Athlete, a service that offers educational resources, training plans, and coaching to amateur and professional mountain sports athletes. Read more…

100 Peaks in 50 Days: Jason Hardrath Sets a New Fastest Known Time (FKT) on The Bulger 100

Jason Hardrath is an Oregon schoolteacher and an enthusiastic Fastest Known Time (FKT) participant. His passion for fitness began in middle school, where he set the audacious goal of achieving a sub-6 minute mile, and carried him into his mid-twenties as a runner, triathlete, and climber. Then a horrific car accident changed his life in an instant. He fought for years to recover, using the mountains as a place for motivation and healing. Read more…

When Can I Climb at the Seattle Program Center?

When our volunteers designed our donor-funded Seattle Program Center (SPC), which opened in 2009, the goal was to create a top-notch instructional center to teach outdoor skills. As we've grown, we continue to add new features and spaces for experiential learning. In total, the Seattle Program Center has nearly 400 bolts around the building, and we've been able to decrease our trips into the mountains by 40%, decreasing our carbon footprint on our wild places. Read more…

Unseen Danger: Navigating Snow Bridge Hazards

Last Sunday, search and rescue teams responded to an emergency call from a popular early-season climb in the Olympic mountains. Two climbers slipped on a steep snowy slope while climbing The Brothers. One fell “into an opening in the snow and over a rock face with running melt water,” and sadly did not survive. This tragic accident has brought an annually recurring hazard back into the thoughts of everyone within the outdoor community: the danger posed by snow bridges.  Read more…

Safety Stories: Near Miss – Unable to Arrest on Snowy Descent of Kangaroo Temple

As Mountaineers, we are committed to learning from our experiences. We examine every incident that happens on a Mountaineers trip for opportunities to improve the ways we explore and teach. Our volunteer safety committee reviews every incident report and picks a few each month to share as examples of ‘Lessons Learned’. The trip report below describes what happened on this trip, in the leader’s own words, and outlines the lessons the leader has identified. In some cases, we offer additional key learnings from the incident. Read more…

The Speed of Love: Going the Distance With Fred Beckey

While traveling solo to remote and wild places, I had been in some dicey situations. The risks were real, but I knew of no one else interested in exploring the nether regions of wilderness, nor the Himalayan front range from east to west, nor the ancient trade routes that connect Tibet to India through massive ranges, passes that cut deep, from north to south where borders often go unmarked – and so I had gone alone. Read more…

Safety Stories: Little Tahoma - The Route is Known for Rockfall

As Mountaineers, we are committed to learning from our experiences. We examine every incident that happens on a Mountaineers trip for opportunities to improve the ways we explore and teach. Our volunteer safety committee reviews every incident report and picks a few each month to share as examples of ‘Lessons Learned’. The trip report below describes what happened on this trip, in the leader’s own words, and outlines the lessons the leader has identified. In some cases, we offer additional key learnings from the incident. Read more…

Adjusting for Conditions: Lessons from an Unexpected Year

This year was a hard one. I hit rock bottom mid-May when I unexpectedly found myself crying alone in a tent in the middle of my living room floor. The chasm between the person I had planned to be when I set goals for 2020 and the person I actually was felt insurmountable. My carefully made plans, proudly anticipated fitness milestones, and dreams of adventure were slipping through my fingers. Read more…

Different & Able | A profile of Kimber Cross

It’s a chilly March morning in Provo, Utah, 2020. Kimber Cross has been flown here by the outdoor meal brand Peak Refuel to shoot a short film about her journey into ice climbing. As the team walks down the snow-packed trail to a frozen waterfall, Kimber feels the eyes of passersby, and they’re staring. Maybe it’s because of the big, red cameras that stand in contrast to the stark landscape, but an old fear starts to creep into her psyche, a fear that tells her to hide. All eyes focus on the tool strapped to her pack. Read more…

Shook: Everest's Deadliest Day with Jennifer Hull & Dave Hahn - Nov 17

Join Jennifer Hull, author of Shook: An Earthquake, a Legendary Mountain Guide, and Everest's Deadliest Day, and mountain guide Dave Hahn for a virtual event to benefit the Juniper Fund, Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation, and The Mountaineers. Read more…

Failure and Growth, Courtesy of El Cap

In the past several years, climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park has blown up in the mainstream consciousness. With Free Solo winning an Oscar and the Dawn Wall ascent getting publicized in The New York Times, it seems as if everyone has a clear picture of what climbing El Cap is like. It is easy to imagine being up on the side of the wall when you see it on a high definition movie theater screen. But is it as easy as people make it look?  Read more…

What Are The Ten Essentials?

The Mountaineers Ten Essentials™ dates back to our climbing courses of the 1930s. This widely respected safety and packing system was formalized in the third edition of Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, released in 1974. Each of the nine editions of Freedom, as it is affectionately known, was written entirely by volunteers and reflects the collective wisdom of hundreds of outdoor skills instructors. The list has always sought to answer two basic questions: Read more…

Seattle Climbing Committee: Reunion, Recruitment, and Summer Activities

While it's been a slower summer than usual for our Seattle Branch Climbing Committee and community, we have taught a number of students and enjoyed a handful of socially responsible trips together. Here are a few highlights from our summer, along with an invite to our reunion party and a call to join our committee as a leader: Read more…

Climbing Holds Grab Bag Sale & Climbing Walls Improvements

UPDATE 10/15/20 - CLIMBING HOLDS HAVE SOLD OUT. 

Over the past year, Mountaineers volunteers and staff have chipped in to help clean, update, and repair our various climbing structures at the Seattle Program Center. The goal of the ongoing project is to improve the safety of the climbing structures with safe, clear color coded routes. Additionally, we hope the improvements will facilitate better teaching with more anchor stations, cleaner climbing lines, and offer more technical routes.  Read more…

Out of the Ashes: Creating a New Life in the Mountains

Every night after putting my boys to bed, I ran. On dark nights my feet would thud against the pavement, headlamp shining through the rain. I did it because I had to – it pushed out the despondency and grief that had been following me for almost two years. I knew pushing my body would bring me closer to what I needed: self-confidence, a distraction from the pain, physical and emotional strength. I moved toward my goal, one foot at a time. Read more…

Climbers of Color: A Partnership to Support More Leaders of Color

We're excited to be partnering with Climbers of Color in support of their mission to create more leaders of color in mountaineering. Established in 2017, Climbers of Color is a Washington State nonprofit that aims to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the climbing and mountaineering community by developing leaders of color. To accomplish its mission, Climbers of Color provides supportive mentorship, technical training from BIPOC professional guides, and access to key resources including gear and scholarships. Read more…

30 Before 30

Theresa Silveyra and Amber Chang are both accomplished climbers and mountaineers. They recently teamed up for Theresa’s #30Before30 project: an ambitious plan for Teresa to climb Wy’east (Mt. Hood) 30 times before Theresa turned 30. Amber joined Teresa for a celebratory summit number 31! Read more…

Joint Statement on Climbing Route Naming

The American Alpine Club, Appalachian Mountain Club, Colorado Mountain Club, Mazamas, and The Mountaineers join with those speaking out and taking action against racist, sexist, and otherwise derogatory route names, and we welcome the conversation about how best to move forward as a community.  Read more…