Outdoor Leadership

Our branch wants to give a big shout out to Ryan Dubberly and Chris Soverel! Meet these two awesome volunteers, whose  hard work is a huge asset to the Foothills community.  Read more…

Are you an experienced Mountaineers activity leader who dreams of taking Mountaineers companions on multi-day adventures in far-flung places? Global Adventures leaders have taken groups skiing, snowshoeing, climbing, scrambling, backpacking, trekking, and day-walking in Alaska, the Rockies, Patagonia, Peru, the Himalayas, the British Isles, New Zealand, and more. The Global Adventures program may be the perfect place for you to live your travel dreams, and at the same time, take your trip planning and group leadership skills to a new level.   Read more…

The Mountaineers has no shortage of outstanding volunteers. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, we had 2,613 individual volunteers support our programs. That means that over 20% of our total membership - or 1 in 5 members - actively volunteered last year in some capacity! Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Tom Eckhout, a volunteer leader with the Olympia Branch who cherishes every moment he has in the mountains. Read more…

On Sunday, January 21, a group of 30 donors and volunteers gathered at the Seattle Program Center to celebrate the long overdue completion of the Friction Slabs project. The idea was born in 2012. Plans were drawn and funds were raised, however the process became much more of a lift than anyone could have anticipated. Fast forward six years, and we have (as far as we can tell) the only fabricated friction slab training structure in existence!  Read more…

Meet Regina Robinson, your branch email editor for the last two years.  When she was recruited into the position, she thought, “No way, I don’t know how to do that!” She eventually agreed after some gentle persuasion and stated, “Okay, I will give it a try." She hasn’t looked back. She promises to keep doing it, "for as long as we will have her." Read more…

Whether you're an active hike leader looking for new ways to get out,  an inactive hike leader who would like to become more active, or a member member who would like to become a hike leader, we need you! By leading hikes, you have an opportunity to develop your skills, go on the hikes you want at the pace you prefer - all while benefiting your club and meeting great new people! Read more…

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

Volunteers are the lifeblood of The Mountaineers, and we get a clear view of their incredible impact when we dive into the numbers! Here is a look at our  collective impact over the past year. Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Kyle Breakey, a volunteer with the Bellingham Branch who sees a huge value in mentorship for leaders at The Mountaineers, both as a mentor and a mentee.  Read more…

The Mountaineers hosted our fourth annual Leadership Conference on Saturday, December 2 at the Seattle Program Center. It was an outstanding day of leadership development for our volunteers and community partners - thank you to everyone who was able to attend! Read more…

As part of our Progressive Outdoor Education initiative, The Mountaineers is investing in eLearning to complement our existing courses. Our successful pilot with Wilderness Navigation in 2016 showed us the value of eLearning in improving the delivery, impact, accessibility, and consistency of our courses.  Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Jerry Logan, a volunteer with the Kitsap Branch who takes pride and joy in helping new climbers achieve summits they didn't think were possible! Read more…

The 2017 Annual Awards Banquet was attended by 130 Mountaineers and guests including Becca Polglase, Andy Bassett, and Jeff Bowman from The Mountaineers staff. Speaker Vik Sahney discussed the intersection of career and personal passions, sharing how he was able to move into a career with REI that mirrored his zeal for outdoor adventure and his personal values regarding sustainability and environmentalism. Read more…

Josh and I first met when we worked together at the Northwest Outward Bound School, and I’ve always been struck by his creativity, analytical skills, approach to teaching, and sense of humor. Josh has a rare ability to champion and role-model the highest values and expectations as an outdoor educator/guide — one of many attributes that make him such an inspiring professional colleague. Read more…

In the summer 2016, The Mountaineers hired Outdoor Safety Institute (OSI) to evaluate how we manage risk in our Global Adventures, Climbing, and Scrambling programs. OSI outlined a number of recommendations, and we have put together a plan to implement them. Read more…

The Mountaineers 'Vision 2022' Strategic Plan calls for us to invest in being “innovative leaders in outdoor education.” This means we need to respond to growing needs and address new century challenges in ways that are different from traditional  outdoor education. This includes investment in our volunteers – the greatest source of innovation and a priceless resource that is uniquely Mountaineers. We call this new approach "Progressive Outdoor Education."  Read more…

From April through November, we worked on several improvements to our website and our Salesforce platform. And in October and November, we added bigger improvements and one new features. Read on to learn more! Read more…

The Mountaineers Leadership Conference is a one-day conference held on Saturday, December 2 at the Seattle Program Center in Magnuson Park. It is an engaging and exciting day of leadership development for you - our community of outstanding leaders - and we hope that you're able to join us! Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Rodica Manole, a volunteer with the Everett Branch who encourages her fellow women to step into leadership roles because you’re more ready than you think you are. Read more…

In the process of writing a recent blog on committee volunteerism, I shared an email conversation with John Dunlap from the Olympia Branch about volunteering with The Mountaineers. John is a five year member who supports several committees, including Olympia’s Scrambling and Sea Kayaking Committees. When I asked John about his experience supporting committee work and volunteering with The Mountaineers, his response took me by surprise - in a very good way. Read more…

Our branch wants to give a big shout out to Karen Wallace and Nancy Temkin, two fairly new hike leaders who have really gone the extra mile during 2017 to bring beginner hikers out on the trail and instill a love of outdoor adventure. Your hard work is huge asset to the Foothills community. Thank You! Read more…

My own Mountaineers leadership story started with a search for trail companions. I was seeking a compatible group on the types of hikes and backpacks that interested me. Then, one day, I took a new arrival from China on his first hike, and I saw the joy and wonder blossom on his face when Mount Rainier emerged in all her glory behind a ridge covered with meadow wildflowers. That was it, I was hooked. Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Bill Borom, a 5-year leader whose involvement in a wide variety of club activities has continued to spark his sense of adventure and expand his pool of friends to adventure with! Read more…

Did you know that The Mountaineers club didn’t have a paid employee until 1984? Tired of all of the paperwork, the growing organization hired a part-time administrator to help with waivers and dues so that volunteers could focus on the fun stuff: developing courses, providing instruction, leading trips, and running committees. Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Donna Kreuger, a Hike Leader who wants people to understand that they don't have to be a big, bad mountain climber to rock the outdoors! Read more…

Last year, The Mountaineers went through an exercise to clarify and distill our core values, both as an organization and as a community. The core values we identified—Adventure, Advocacy, Community, Education, and Volunteerism—closely align with our mission to “explore, learn, and conserve." In a recent course, one of our students identified a common language shortcut with the unintended impact of being non-inclusive. Read more…

Occasionally, Mountaineers leaders are interested in leading a multi-day trip outside the Pacific Northwest. If you want to lead a backpacking trip to Hawaii, a volcano climb in Canada, a sea kayak trip in Mexico, or, perhaps even farther afield like a sailing trip in Greece, a climb in Peru, or a trek in the Dolomites, we have different ways to get involved. Read more…

Imagine yourself out on a beautiful backcountry adventure. You pick the place - wherever you like! You've planned to spend the night, and as you're settling into camp, you get out your cook set and start to make dinner. All of the sudden - boom - you cut your finger. And yikes, its a bleeder! Read more…

For our Leader Spotlight this month we talked to Sherrie Trecker, a Climb Leader who knows how to delegate, wants to inspire more women's leadership, and always has a bag of gummies in her backpack. Read more…