Courses & Activities

Forget the long lines and expensive tickets of traditional European tourist sites. There’s a better way to explore Europe—on foot. Here are 5 reasons to pack your backpack, lace up your boots, and hit the trail across the pond. Read more…

The Seattle Mountaineers Photography Committee is launching a new photo presentation series to celebrate the extraordinary photography adventures our Mountaineers members (and others in the Seattle area) have experienced around the world. We will be hosting these presentations to share photos, videos, and storytelling from the photographers among us. Read more…

For a few days in late August, a group of students from our Mountaineers Adventure Club (MAC) joined the Access Fund's Conservation Team for stewardship work at Washington Pass. The project improved the well-used, but ill-maintained climber’s path that branches off of the Blue Lake Trail to access climbs on Liberty Bell, one of Washington’s most coveted and impressive peaks.  Read more…

Thanks to an incredible landscape, the foresight of early city planners to build a world class park system, a government that values trails, and an active population engaged in a healthy outdoors lifestyle, when it comes to urban trails, Seattle is topnotch. The city’s park system contains a wide array of trails that traverse nature preserves, old-growth forests, historic districts, lake and Puget Sound shoreline, and vibrant neighborhoods. There are hundreds of miles of them, giving you many reasons to never leave the city when it comes to seeking excellent outdoor adventures.  Read more…

Baker Lodge is a special place. Its stunning location looking up at Mount Shuksan, and the sense of community it creates, brings many people to this wonderful place. There's nothing better than a day outside followed by a hot cup of tea and a hearty dinner served up by the volunteer hosts. Read more…

After the 2018 calendar by Jeremy Collins sold out in two months, the artist and Mountaineers Books decided to publish one for 2019 too (The Wild Lines of Jeremy Collins, 2019 Wall Calendar). Following are questions we asked Jeremy about how his climbing pursuits and his personal philosophy are reflected in his art. Read more…

Thanks to support from hundreds of people and partners, we're excited to launch our new Mountaineers Gear Lending Library and leader training programs. As we seek to continue to engage future Mountaineers, expand our youth programs, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the outdoors, this resource will make the outdoors more accessible to all outdoor enthusiasts. Read more…

The rain came steadily through the mountain hemlocks as my group huddled under an overhanging branch. Misty waves of water had been passing through this forest for the last half hour, but distant thunder was what caused us to pause. Raincoats and hats dripped. Read more…

We invite you to apply for this winter's Alpine Ambassadors ice climbing program. 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…

As a teenager in the 1950s, I was a voracious reader fascinated with several books that became the classic accounts of the so called “Golden Age” of Himalayan mountaineering. Among this treasure trove was K2: The Savage Mountain, the unforgettable story of the 1953 American K2 expedition. It stirred a fascination with K2 in me which has lasted a lifetime. Read more…

The following is excerpted from Paul Souders' new book, Arctic Solitaire: A Boat, A Bay, and the Quest for the Perfect Bear. This is from Chapter Five: A Hole in the Water. Read more…

Dense fog concealed the subalpine meadow in an eerie white veil. Water dripped from the firs and cedars, and our pant legs were soaked from touching the grass, lupines, and mountain hemlocks. Only a hundred feet in front of me, my friend, Laurie, began to disappear into the white. Waves of heavier mist drifted across the field and lasted for just a few minutes before passing. Every snap of a stick in the surrounding forest would cause us to stop and look. Spray Park is well known for its black bears, and we didn’t want to meet one in a cloud. Read more…

In each issue of Mountaineer magazine, we feature two lovebirds who met through The Mountaineers and share a passion of the outdoors. In this column, we interview Sharon Dietrich on her 37-year marriage with Chuck Potter, after meeting on a hike in 1978.  Read more…

Our younger members within The Mountaineers have been staying active and busy in Olympia the past few years. Volunteers from Olympia’s Youth Outreach and Family Hiking committees have pioneered new ways to get kids and their families excited about the outdoors. Since the youth program began nearly three years ago, our volunteers have created many  opportunities for youth to learn and explore. Read more…

Your feet take you places, and as a result you probably have more than a few pairs of well-loved shoes and sandals. We think it's time you give them the makeover they deserve! In honor of our weeklong K2 celebration, Vibram is bringing The Sole Factor Tour to Seattle to bring your old kicks back to life. Their team of specialized cobblers are resoling shoes for only $25 – all of which is donated directly to The Mountaineers in support of our outdoor education and conservation programs. Read more…

With the fires burning around Washington this past month, it’s been a pretty hazy August. Luckily, that didn’t seem to stop you from getting outside! And even better, it didn’t stop you from writing more than a few fantastic trip reports.   Read more…

Name: Kristan Tea
Hometown: Ithaca, NY
Member Since:  2014
Occupation: Retail Regional Manager
Favorite Things to Photograph: Kristan is attracted to colors and shapes. Sometimes that’s something organic, sometimes not. She rarely photographs people, because she can take her time with inanimate objects. Kristan considers herself a slow photographer. Read more…

On Monday, August 13, 2018, I attended a free presentation at REI by Dr. Michael Domingo, DPT, OCS entitled "Exercises for Healthy Hiking". I learned a lot about how to stay active in the outdoors as you enter your 'wiser years', and with Dr. Domingo's permission I want to share those tips with you. Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Henry Romer, a volunteer leader and instructor with the Olympia Branch who leads for multiple activities and encourages new leaders to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available within our Mountaineers community! Read more…

With the sun about to kiss the horizon, Liz Thomas, trail name: “Snorkel,” has places to go and needs the last rays of the day to illuminate her path. She is ascending and descending steps in Seattle, one of the hilliest and most publicly staircased cities in the country. This is not a task to be executed, at her pace, in complete darkness. Read more…

The Ozette Loop, often referred to as the Ozette Triangle, is located on the Olympic Peninsula and offers spectacular coastal scenery. Ozette is the ancestral home of the Makah, and the site of a world-famous archaeological discovery. Here are some ways you can enjoy the hike and learn more about Makah culture. Read more…

“Stuart, is that you?” I didn’t care that I said it aloud… nor did I care that Stuart is a mass of granite, incapable of a response. After traveling nearly 40 miles over the weekend with another 15 to go on an endless forest road, alone, I was relieved to see a familiar face. Exasperated, I pushed my poles to my forehead and let out a sigh that came from a deeper place in my psyche than I’d like to admit. Read more…

Gym climbing is a great way to engage your body, mind, and get vertical. With the accessibility of gyms in nearly every state and a high concentration of them in urban areas, you’re never far from crimps, slopers, or jugs. Whether you’re a first-time climber or advanced competitor, these tips will help you stay on the wall. Read more…

Tom Unger has been hiking, climbing, skiing, paddling, and sailing up and down the west coast for 25 years. He’s widely praised by students and participants for his outstanding communications, group facilitation, instruction, and collaborative leadership. In the summer of 2017, Tom led a two-week trip with The Mountaineers around Cape Scott with Barney Bernhard, Esther Ladwig, Marty Mayock, Charlie Michel, and Karen Cramer. In this interview, Tom discusses how he intentionally brought his group together around common goals, expectations, and trip styles. Read more…

In Wildfire: On the Front Lines with Station 8, journalist and author Heather Hansen embeds with Boulder, Colorado's Station 8 fire crew and follows them through an entire season. From these professionals, she learns what it takes to protect us from these ever more frequent conflagrations. She also interviews those who study these fires to report the reasons for them and how we can do a better job of mitigating their destruction. Following is an excerpt from Heather's book. Read more…

For the second weekend in August, the photography and naturalists committees teamed up for a weekend of events at Baker Lodge. We used the great opportunity to share our love of the outdoors together and develop an enhanced sense of connection. And to take in the Perseid Meteor showers - or so we hoped! Read more…

In April, the Olympia Branch of The Mountaineers issued a Stewardship Challenge to Mountaineers organization wide. The purpose of the Stewardship Challenge is to engage all members to participate in a rewarding day of stewardship. The Olympia Stewardship Committee believes this day of service will create closer connections to our magnificent natural resources, demonstrate our determination to support the public lands, and awaken a genuine spirit of service to our region in each participant. In short: we feel it's our duty to leave the trails better than before. Read more…

Three years ago, the climbing community rose up to fund a pit toilet at the Frenchman Coulee climbing area - better known as Vantage - in Central Washington. As it turns out, if you build it, they will poop. A lot. The toilet became a victim of its own success and fundraising was jointly undertaken by the Washington Climbers Coalition, the Access Fund, the American Alpine Club, and The Mountaineers to build a second toilet. Read more…

What could be better than sitting around a campfire with friends and family, telling stories and making s'mores? In the spirit of National S'mores Day, we caught up with Dave and Ilyssa Kyu, the editors behind Campfire Stories: Tales from America's National Parks, to ask them a few questions.  Read more…

Many of the 100 peaks in Mount Rainier National Park are seldom visited and we believe under appreciated. In this sense they are “secrets” and worthy of being featured in this series. In this chapter of Secret Rainier we describe Goat Island Mountain, one of our favorite scrambles. Notable are the views of Little Tahoma looming above Rainier. It’s is a super summer scramble and a great destination to plan for in the midst of winter. Read more…