Courses & Activities

As Mountaineers, we enjoy thousands of miles of trails and waterways throughout our public lands. We must set a compelling example as principled stewards who are willing to work hard to maintain the lands we enjoy. The Olympia Branch is challenging you to dedicate one day (or more!) this year to stewarding our public lands. This challenge is a great way to give back to our outdoor playgrounds and meet a vibrant community of volunteers. Read more…

Mountaineers members can earn badges and peak pin awards for completing different objectives in Washington and beyond. If you're looking for new ideas, look no further than our list of Award Badges! And join us in congratulating the 2018 class on their collective achievements. Read more…

I moved to Seattle in the summer of 2016 because I no longer really knew who I was, or what I was doing with my life, but I knew that I couldn’t continue living in New York City, with its crowds and smells and weird roommate situations. I had visited Seattle twice before I moved here, and while I didn’t know a lot about the city, I knew that the proximity to the water and the mountains and the boundless natural beauty made me feel better, and I wanted to feel better. So I moved. Read more…

Whether you're planning a section hike or a thru hike, our experts are here to help. We asked the authors of our Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail guidebooks to give us their top tips to prepare.   Read more…

Wolf Bauer, one of The Mountaineers’ oldest and most distinguished members, passed away on January 23, 2016, a month shy of his 104th birthday. He was born on February 24, 1912. Read more…

Fort Rock State Park is a geological wonder located just outside Christmas Valley, Oregon. It's a horseshoe shaped volcanic maar, formed of tuff breccias that tower some 325 feet above the flat desert floor between fifty and one-hundred thousand years ago. It was formed when super heated basalt magma came into contact with ground water, causing an explosive eruption. Read more…

It’s no secret that exploring on foot has become not just my favorite thing to do but also my favorite thing to talk about. So I was thrilled when family, friends, and friends of friends started asking for my advice on how to do it. I loved helping them prepare for their trips and hearing their stories once they were back. But the most exciting thing to me was that people who started exploring on foot didn’t want to stop—just like me! Even before they finished their first trail, they were already thinking about the next.  Read more…

In 1934, a group of aspiring Seattle peak baggers lined the railings of the Rialto Building to watch a young University of Washington student named Wolf Bauer rappel three stories down the central shaft. The maneuver was one of several climbing techniques Wolf had taught himself using materials solicited from family ties in Germany. In lieu of a belay device or climbing harness, neither of which had been invented, Wolf ran two lines of rope between his legs, around one thigh, up and across his chest, over his shoulder, and down his back. Read more…

Backpacking season will be upon us before we know it, and we have more options than ever to help you kick-start your backcountry dreams. Courses are available for adults at all skill and experience levels, as well as for families who want to take kids out on the trail. And, you're welcome to take a course with any branch regardless of your branch affiliation. Be sure to sign up for courses while you can, they fill up quickly!   Read more…

In the peak of ski season, we asked the authors of our Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes guidebooks to spill the beans on their favorite routes. Following are their faves – out of the 100 or so tours in each of their books. Below is the beta and general route description as excerpted from each book. Read more…

Whistler is know for its skiing and snowboarding and was the location of the 2010 Olympics. It's been on my bucket list for a while now, but I've been so involved with hikes at Mt. Rainier during the summer, that I forget about it until the season turns cold and wet. It's also supposed to have good hiking trails for the warmer months, so that's why I wanted to go. Read more…

During my previous life as a sportswriter, an NBA player once made me wait for an arranged interview while he horsed around with ball boys in front of his locker. After a long spell of this, he grew bored and finally turned to me. Read more…

On the evening of May 14, 2018, my wife Kathy “OBAL Unbranded” Vaughan and myself, aka Team UltraPedestrian, set out hiking south along the Idaho Centennial Trail from the small town of Hammett, Idaho. On November 5, after covering more than 2,600 miles on foot over the course of 174 days, 22 hours, and 25 minutes, we returned to our starting point, completing the first ever Inland Northwest Loop. Read more…

Bruce Tremper is the author of Staying Alive In Avalanche Terrain, which has just been published in the third edition. Staying Alive is the country's best-selling book on how to stay safe in  avalanche country.  Read more…

Climbing mountains requires a lot of energy, risk management, and the ability to lean into difficult situations. In this new speaker series, sponsored by the Seattle Climbing Committee, hear from four local outdoor experts in a series of seminars on nutrition, high altitude travel, mountain weather, and dealing with head trauma. Read more…

Calling all “go big or go home” winter enthusiasts! Get ready to get goosebumps while you “Ooh!” and “Ahh!” at the impact and importance of our winter wildlands through this collection of short films. The fourteenth annual Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival will screen in  Bellevue on January 10 and in Seattle at The Mountaineers Seattle Program Center on January 21.  Read more…

We thought we were in a safe spot, but before we knew it, my Dad was falling into a crevasse. Moments earlier, we had arrived back at high camp and started to unclip from the rope – the tether that allows climbers to catch one another in the event of a fall. Then, in an instant, the snow collapsed under Dad. He pulled his leg out, but was unable to gain purchase and started sliding down the slope into the void. Only one of us, a new climber named Scott, was still attached to him. Read more…

Welcome to 2019, everyone! It’s that time of the year when ambitions are high, and confidence is running even higher. It’s really time to carpe that diem! And if you are not already cranking your music playlist to loop “Eye of the Tiger” ad nauseam because you are not sure what to do this year, hey – we got a few suggestions for you. Veni, vidi, vici! (Guess who just checked “learning Latin” off this year’s list?) Read more…

Mountaineers seem to be in constant motion: skiing, hiking, climbing, paddling, scrambling, and exploring. Yet moments of stillness can bring equal restoration to our restless souls. Capturing all of these moments in wild places is a legacy many adventurers share, and today it’s easier than ever to bring others along on our trips through social media. Instagram is an incredible place to find inspiration, meet new people, and connect with the world around us. Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Bill Coady, a volunteer leader with the Everett Branch who encourages others to lead because he enjoys helping other similarly-minded outdoor enthusiasts ... and because he loves it! Read more…

The first time I tried my hand at astrophotography (shooting the stars, as opposed to shooting stars) was on a clear night just outside Mount Rainier National Park. I was renting a cabin with my wife and her family, a trio of sisters from Colombia who spoke frequently about the possibility of seeing wildlife. I left them for the pitch darkness down the road along the Nisqually River. Read more…

I’m not going to sugarcoat this for you. It’s a hard trek during winter. My best friend and I took on the challenge last spring, breaking trail for a full mile through fresh powder with heavy backpacks. We felt breathless as we snowshoed four miles to one of the highest points in Tahoma State Forest. But with every crunch beneath our snowshoes — and between the sounds of our groans - the top of Mount Rainier became more and more visible. Read more…

In 1965 Jim Whittaker led Senator Robert Kennedy to the first ascent of a remote mountain in the Yukon named after the late president JFK. Fifty years later, the sons of the original climbing team—a raucous band manager, a candidate for governor, and a young mountaineer—embarked on an expedition to the mountain to celebrate the special bond that connects them all. This expedition is captured in the film Return to Mount Kennedy, and was screened in front of packed house in Seattle on December 9, 2018, and will be featured again on February 19, 2019, at our Seattle Program Center. Read more…

Our Photography Committee is back for another round of  exciting ways for new photographers to get their feet wet, and wise hands to build on their existing skill set. With a wealth of options for activities, classes, and events, we have something here for everyone.  Read more…

Artist Jeremy Collins roams the globe with sketchbooks in hand, dumping his soul into their pages. In the folds of those pages  his particular worldview was born—from authentic travel and adventures as an exploratory rock climber to award-winning filmmaker and author. Read more…

Braided River, the conservation imprint of Mountaineers Books, is proud to present a brand new photography exhibit "Colorado: Sage Spirit and Roaring Rivers" in Concourse A of Denver's International Airport. An award-winning photographer, Dave Showalter has captured the spirit of Colorado wildlife and paired them with stories of Westerners working to preserve the land they love. Read more…

Born Mary Gaiser on December 7, 1909, in Yakima Valley, Mary loved Washington and the natural world from a young age. She moved to Seattle and taught grade school until the mid-1930s, all the while sharing her love for wild places with her students. She was especially passionate about biology and natural history. Read more…

We are fortunate to have large National Parks and Wilderness areas in Washington State, and with them come an incredible array of wildlife. Among the more mysterious and hard-to-spot creatures are the bears populating our forests and rivers. I've had the opportunity to see over 50 bears in Washington over the last 15 years, and another dozen or so outside the state. I’ve written down every memorable encounter and have learned a few things about where to find them, how to spot them, and what to do (and not do).  Read more…

The following is excerpted from Urban Trails: Everett by Craig Romano, and features three great hikes on Whidbey Island: Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve, Trillium Community Forest, and Dugualla State Park. Edited for space and clarity. Read more…

With great sadness we share the news of the passing of Steve Biem, a cherished member of our Seattle Branch climbing community and beloved father. He succumbed to high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) at Camp II on Ama Dablam this morning, after summiting with a team yesterday afternoon. Read more…