Mountaineer Magazine

Mountaineer Magazine

All posts

The Search for Eldorado: An Adaptive Climber Finds Her Summit

Kimberly “Kimber” Cross has that windblown sense of adventure you’d find in old western movies: a protagonist with an indelible charm, big smile, hard-working grit that’s worn like loose chaps, and a can-do attitude as easy as the winds she roams with. Read more…

Last Word | Empowerment

While my wife was buying our snowshoe permits for the Crystal Mountain Nordic Area, I leaned against the back of our car, put my snowshoes on, and admired the couple resting at a nearby picnic table. They’d finished their jaunt through the powder around Leach Lake. They had at least a score on our three score years and I saw them as my role models. I too would be taking to the slopes for the next two decades, no matter the whining from my knees. They were doing it. I could do it. They had seized the day. Their stooping shoulders were not to be yoked by the presumptions of society or nature. They were empowered. Read more…

Two Girls in the Mountains

With a whirlwind of energy, Aisha and Anisah enter The Mountaineers Seattle Program Center, along with their father, Hakim Ali. The program center is a giant playground for them, starting with the basalt columns outside. I’m always proud to share with guests that people actually climb them – but the little Mountaineers, Aisha and Anisah weren’t surprised. Read more…

Peak Performance | Single Leg Deadlift: Open Book T

Most hikers and climbers want to improve balance and increase speed for easier travel in the mountains. For many years I've recommended the one-legged deadlift and its variations as a powerful exercise to build ankle, knee and hip stability. The Open Book T variation is an advanced balance move combining Warrior 3 and Half Moon poses from yoga, with internal and external hip rotation. It reminds me of graceful figure skaters who glide effortlessly across the ice, leg extended behind them parallel to the ground. Read more…

Voices Heard | POC-in-Chief: A Legacy Living On

In Tucson, a large Latino community abuts Saguaro National Park but seldom visits it. It was there that I met Cam Juárez through work that Barack Obama made possible. Juárez was a planner and project manager outside the Park Service when he agreed to take on the challenge of connecting his community with Saguaro. Juárez is a miracle, really. He has birth defects that caused shortened upper limbs and missing digits, and a cardiac condition. His mother was a single parent and a migrant farm worker in California’s Central Valley, where she likely was exposed to pesticides associated with defects suffered by her son and now her grandson as well. Read more…

Trail Talk | Reflections at Walden Pond

"After a still winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what -how -when -where? But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight." -Walden, Henry David Thoreau Read more…

Voices Heard | Belonging in Nature

In 2005, Dr. Carolyn Finney visited the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta with her father, a stoic man who grew up in the segregated South. She was startled when he grabbed her with a stricken look on his face. “I thought he was having a heart attack,” Finney said during a recent lecture at the University of Washington. Read more…

Retro Rewind | Wolf Bauer, A Wonderful Life: 1912-2016

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…

Peak Fitness | Ankle Mobility for Agility in Winter Sports

In preparation for the upcoming snow season, I recommend skiers focus on strengthening their quads, core, and other muscles around the hips and knees. However, it’s important not to overlook the small hinge that transfers ground force through the rest of the body: the ankle. Read more…

Last Word | Transformation

I’m not a joiner. I’ve never been drawn to participate in structured organizations to make social contacts, network, or fulfill a need to belong to a group. So how did I become fully engaged with The Mountaineers in progressively more involved and time-consuming roles? I’ve asked myself this question more than once, and being asked to write his column has moved me to self-reflection to distill my motivations into words. Read more…

Retro Rewind | The Evolution of Freedom: A Look Back at The Mountaineers Seminal Climbing Book

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…

Last Word | Resilience

In many mountainous and polar regions, snow turns pink in the summer as communities of algae blossom. The pigmentation evolved as a protective mechanism against high levels of radiation. During this era of rising temperatures, the algae creates a feedback effect whereby the darkness spreading over the snow absorbs more of the sun’s rays to increase melting, adding more reflective water to the snow that in turn feeds the algae, furthering warming, accelerating climate change. Read more…

Voices Heard | What If I'm not White

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…

How To: Write Content for The Mountaineers Blog or Magazine

Do you have tips on ways to avoid blisters on a hike? Are you the best at pitching a tent in the rain? Have you created a fool-proof packing list? We want to know!  Read more…

Retro Rewind | The Teenagers Who Summited Rainier… in Winter

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…

Top 10 Mountaineers of Instagram: Inspiration for 2019

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…

Conservation Currents | What Does the Future of Conservation Look Like?

Lovers of wild places owe a lot to the year 1968. That fall, Congress gave us three key conservation victories: the establishment of North Cascades National Park, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the National Trails System Act. Read more…

Voices Heard | Solitude vs. Community: There’s No “Right” Way to Be Outside

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…

Impact Giving | Building a Culture of Philanthropy: One Pie at a Time

For Mountaineers member Matt Ray, the most transformational experiences of his life happened at a summer camp in the North Woods of Wisconsin. Part traditional sports camp and part old-fashioned sleepaway camp, PorterCamp offers a safe space for campers and staff to build a better understanding of who they are, while learning to develop healthy relationships and having a lot of fun in the process. Matt attended as a boy, and has since committed over half of his life volunteering to ensure today’s young campers experience the same magic he did more than three decades ago. Read more…

A Hidden Winter Gem: Going Hut-to-Hut in Western Washington

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…

Footprints: Hiking vs. Carbon

Our family has hiked together since our 12-year-old daughter was a newborn. I remember our daughter’s first decade as a series of literal peaks and valleys, many of them in the Olympics. I can picture her chasing butterflies over Marmot Pass at age five, and searching for fairies in old growth cathedrals along the Dungeness River. When she finished first grade we backpacked into Grand Valley, then clambered up Grand Peak, a perch with majestic views into the heart of the Olympic wilderness. Read more…

Voices Heard | A Seattle Urban Park Ranger Bringing Diversity to the Outdoors

White, male and “midcareer,” Seattle’s Charles Beall in a lot of ways is the face of the National Park Service that turned 100 on August 25, 2016.

He also may be the best hope the agency has for changing that face to match the diversity that is rapidly transforming this country. And the reasons essentially start out the same: Because he is white, male and “midcareer.” Read more…

Global Adventures | We Aren’t in Kansas Anymore: Trekking in Tasmania

Perhaps it was the splash of the shy platypus as it swam away after a close encounter with us on the trail, or the snarl of Tasmanian devils feeding on carcasses and biting each other at a sanctuary near the start of our trek. Or maybe it was the zzzzzzzzip of a big, black currawong bird unzipping a backpack and helping itself to the snacks in our backpacks, or the THUMP of the Bennett’s wallaby jumping away with a joey in her pouch as we watched from our hut. One thing was certain: we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Read more…

Last Word | Stoked

I was not stoked to write this column, not stoked at all, bra’.

When I hear someone say how stoked they are to get on with whatever it is they are getting on with, I get wistful at the lack of context.  Read more…

Self-Care in the Mountains: Magic in the Rwenzoris

The Mountaineers first met Tyrhee Moore in The Adventure Gap, a book we published chronicling the first all African-American summit attempt on Denali. Tyrhee was among the youngest of nine climbers, ranging in age from 17 to 65, to attempt the climb America’s highest peak. Since the 2013 expedition, his outdoor resume has grown to include Grand Teton, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Aconcagua. His experiences and challenges in the outdoors have garnered national attention, and he’s risen as an advocate for increasing interest and advocacy amongst black youth in outdoor spaces. Today Tyrhee speaks around the country on topics regarding the adventure gap and conservation leadership, and is a champion for increasing diversity in the outdoors. Read more…

Outside Insight | Stewardship Through The Eyes of a Land Manager

Sarah Lange is an outdoor recreation planner for the U.S. Forest Service. She’s also a former Mountaineers staff member, working as the Public Lands Program Manager from 2010-2013. At the 2017 Mountaineers Leadership Conference, Sarah was part of a land manager and partners panel and discussed ways that Mountaineers leaders can integrate stewardship and low-impact recreation into their trips and activities. Heading into the busy summer season, I caught up with Sarah to better understand her perspective as a land manager, and to learn more about how our leaders can encourage and inspire others to be responsible stewards of our public lands. Read more…

Last Word | Purpose

My only purpose in life is to live.

Is that too egoistic?

Maybe too amoral? Read more…

Trail Talk | Morning on Mount Bonaparte

Eastern Washington’s third highest summit, 7,257-foot Mount Bonaparte rises all alone in the Okanogan Highlands. Bonaparte is a monadnock (also known as an inselberg) — a geological term taken from Mount Monadnock, a popular southern New Hampshire mountain memorialized by 19th century writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The word monadnock is of Abenaki origin translating to isolated mountain. Monadnocks are lone isolated mountains standing above their surroundings. They have fared better than their environs in surviving the agents of erosion. Broad lofty Mount Bonaparte indeed stands alone, and with a 3,500-foot prominence, is distinguishable from quite a distance away. Read more…

Peak Performance | Seven Steps to Vibrant Health

As a Mountaineer with summer objectives, you may already have a solid exercise program that includes a weekend adventure, weekday trainings, and weekly strength and flexibility workouts. But a healthy lifestyle is more than your exercise routine. If you’re like a lot of people I know, you may be cutting corners on sleep, stressing about work or school, eating in the car to fit everything in, and skipping social commitments with friends. Read more…

Life Skills: Reflections From Our Annual MAC Trip

I started climbing about twelve years ago, in the mountains of North Carolina in my mid-20s. Climbing did not come naturally to me, and I still constantly fight the cognitive dissonance of wanting to ascend higher and master moves while facing a petrifying fear of heights. Through the years I have experimented with ways to manage this fear, which has made room for this activity to make a positive impact on my life. I’ve used climbing as a vehicle for travel and exploration. My closest friends are those who’ve tied into a rope with me. And climbing is the activity I most enjoy teaching to new and aspiring Mountaineers. Read more…