News & Events

Are you dreaming of outdoor adventures or looking to improve your skills? The Olympia Mountaineers can help get you on your way. Join us on January 2, 2020 for our annual Winter Open House. You can meet representatives from our courses and activities who will answer your questions about what it takes to get started, the gear you will need, course schedules, expectations, benefits, and more! Read more…

Charlotte Austin is an award-winning adventure writer and international mountain guide. In her decade of guiding, she's led climbing and mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, Alaska, South America, and more. Join us in Olympia November 12, 2019, to hear from Charlotte about how she's turned lessons learned into actionable hands-on tools for safe and successful trips. Read more…

The world-renowned Banff Centre's Banff Mountain Film Festival celebrates its 43rd year, continuing to bring the best action, environment, and adventure films to audiences in Banff and no less than 40 countries across the globe. Join us this Nov & Dec to catch showings in Tacoma (Nov 25-26), Seattle (Dec 4-5), or Olympia (Dec 6-8).  Read more…

As we enter into the rainy season you may notice that there are fewer photography field trips, but that opens the door to more indoor activities and events. In the next few months, we have a photo presentation, two workshops, and  several indoor photography urban adventures to keep you busy. Read more…

Do you want to learn more about travel photography before your big trip, or just enjoy the gorgeous photos your fellow Mountaineers took on their adventures? Join us for our Behind the Shot series! Created by the Seattle Photography Committee, this series is designed to inspire and educate our fellow photographers. This October 23 we explore the incredible forests of western Panama with Thomas Bancroft. Be sure to save the date for our other upcoming presentations. Read more…

John Porter has been called a climber's climber. A member of "the generation that nearly climbed itself into extinction", John currently serves as president of The Alpine Club, the world's first mountaineering club founded in the UK in 1857. John has been a part of many notable first ascents and wrote the biography of famed British mountaineer Alex MacIntryre. Join us to hear John's incredible tales of mountaineering achievement and failures. Read more…

Earlier this summer we hosted a lively summer kick-off party at Mountaineering Club for 200 of our members and supporters. We’d now like to invite you back up to the rooftop for another party – this time in support of The Mountaineers critical conservation and advocacy work. Read more…

The Mountaineers is excited to partner with Tulalip Tribes for a one-day workshop to discuss recreation and treaty rights. This is a unique and special invitation for our community to meet with tribal leaders to learn about their culture and connection to the local landscape. Read more…

The annual banquet is a special yearly event where students, graduates, instructors, and leaders from our Olympia Branch courses and activities come together to celebrate another great year of adventuring in the great outdoors. Read more…

There are 10,000 voices in each of us. One of them is fear. "Voices of Fear" depicts Kristen Ulmer's relationship with fear during her ascendancy as, by all accounts, the first female big mountain extreme skier. Join us for the film and for a special pre-show Fear Management workshop for athletes hosted by Kristen Ulmer. Read more…

Established in 1979, Mountainfilm is dedicated to educating, inspiring, and motivating audiences about environments, cultures, issues, and adventures. We're excited to host these wonderful films again this year, and we hope you'll join us! Read more…

Refuge Outdoor Festival is a 3-day camping experience geared toward people of color. Introduced in 2018, Refuge is "centered on building community through outdoor recreation, conversations (community talks, workshops), music, and art that appeal to a diverse and inclusive audience." The Mountaineers signed on as a sponsor of Refuge because we know affinity spaces are important places to build connections with each other and the outdoors, and we'd like to invite you to participate in this year's festival on behalf of The Mountaineers. Read more…

Join The Mountaineers and Puget Sound Mycological Society at Meany Lodge for our annual Mushroom Weekend October 11-13! It's the perfect place to learn everything you ever wanted to know about mushrooms. Join us as we forage for local mushrooms, learn how to use fungi in and out of the kitchen, cook a variety of exciting mushroom meals, and meet others who love mushrooms just as much as you do!  Read more…

Steve Swenson, a Mountaineers Books Author and member of The Mountaineers Board of Directors, along with alpinists Chris Wright, Graham Zimmerman, and Mark Richey, completed the first ascent of Link Sar (7,041m) in the Central Pakistani Karakoram via its 3400-meter Southeast Face. The object of at least nine previous expeditions, the first ascent of this peak has been a highly sought-after achievement for the climbing community. The team is calling their route the Southeast Face (M6+ WI4 90°, 2,300m), but the grade poorly portrays the challenge of this route that Steve, a Karakoram veteran, calls “one of the most complex and difficult routes I have ever climbed.” Read more…

With great sadness we share the news of the passing of Ann Nelson, an active 25-year member of The Mountaineers community. Ann was with other Mountaineers members on a private trip, completing a backpacking traverse from the Necklace Valley to the West Foss River Valley in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness on Sunday, August 4, 2019, when she lost her footing on loose rock. She did not survive the injuries sustained in the fall. Read more…

The Seattle Photography Committee started the Behind the Shot series last fall with a goal of inspiring others to go on their own photo adventure. These presentations will not only show you gorgeous photos, but will give you information about camera equipment and planning trips. Join us September 24 to explore Costa Rica, and save the date for other upcoming presentations. Read more…

The Olympia Mountaineers invites you to a dedication gathering celebrating Paul Wiseman, the late founder of the Olympia Branch of The Mountaineers who established our branch in 1963 and leaves behind and indelible legacy.  Read more…

No Man's Land Film Festival (NMLFF) is the premier all-women adventure film festival based out of Carbondale, Colorado and on tour internationally. We're excited to host this for the first time in our outdoor theater on Friday, August 30, 2019 at our Seattle Program Center! Read more…

Picnics and Northwest summer evenings are made for each other. It gets even better when you add in active outdoor people, friends and families, a beautiful setting, and great food. Join us for our Summer Picnic to celebrate our community and enjoy the height of summer with your fellow Mountaineers. This is a great opportunity to connect with people you have been training and recreating with this year in a more casual setting. Find out what your friends have been doing, and plan those late summer/fall events!  Read more…

On June 12, 2019, we celebrated the beginning of summer with a kick-off party in partnership with Mountaineering Club. More than 200 Mountaineers made their way to the ‘summit’ of the Graduate Hotel - the stunning rooftop bar with panoramic PNW views - to celebrate another great season of our favorite warm-weather activities. Read more…

SheJumps and The Mountaineers are pleased to present Wild Skills Day again this year - a free day camp for young girls (age 6-12) to learn the skills they need for outdoor adventuring. You can read more about this exceptional experience from Wild Skills Director Christy Pelland. We still have a few spots left to join us in Tacoma on June 8, 2019. Read more…

When  Mountaineering Club debuted earlier this year, rumor had it that The Mountaineers had opened a new bar on the roof of Seattle's Graduate Hotel! While the rumor isn't true, we're still excited to share that we'll be partnering with Mountaineering Club throughout the year on a handful of parties and projects. Up first - a summer kick-off to celebrate the new season of warm-weather activities! Mark your calendars for June 12! Read more…

On May 22, 2019, we hosted an "Electric Celebration" at the Seattle Program Center to commemorate the official launch of solar power and say thank you to  the donors, super volunteers, and key leaders in our community. As part of the event, guests could take tours of our roof to observe the solar panels firsthand, and heard from Charlie Michel, who along with his wife Carol made the solar panels possible, and Greg Hill, the "Electric Adventurer".  Read more…

Yosemite, September 1998. Marie, Andrew, and I are standing at a trail junction in northern Yosemite National Park, unable to decide which trail to take. We've had a spectacular week of high country, off-trail rambling in beautiful, high basins. Now we're making our way back to Tuolumne Meadows on-trail. The plan was to go left at this junction and do two more days of hiking through a valley none of us have visited. Now that we're at the junction, we realize we have the option to go right and make it back to the car this evening. Tempting. Read more…

The Mountaineers and Adidas Terrex are pleased to present climbing phenom Molly Mitchell on May 14 at the Seattle Program Center. An accomplished 5.13+ trad climber and youth coach to aspiring climbers, Molly values fighting hard, trusting the process, and measuring success - even in the smallest of increments. Come learn how she celebrates success while being vulnerable and battling an anxiety disorder. Read more…

Join us for The Era of Megafires with Dr. Paul Hessberg, a research landscape ecologist with Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station. In this multi-media presentation, Hessburg explains how over the past decade the number of large, severe wildfires has been on the rise. These megafires burn more than 100,000 acres at a time; they can destroy communities, wildlife habitat, and natural resources. This special presentation conveys the conditions that lead to megafires and how they might be managed or mitigated. Read more…

Our Mountaineers naturalist committees offer opportunities to learn about the plants, animals, marine life, and geology of the Pacific Northwest. To help you get involved, the Olympia Naturalist Committee is offering new activities in May and June to help you learn more about the birds of our region. Read more…

Happy Earth Day, Mountaineers! We are proud to be one of Washington’s leading voices for protecting the outdoor experience in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. To achieve our goals, we partner with a number of environmental and outdoor industry groups and coalitions, and work closely with land managers and lawmakers to fight for public lands. Our strength comes from our members, who are inspired by the wild places they explore everyday. Join us in our stewardship efforts by volunteering at one of our many upcoming  opportunities with partners this spring. Read more…

Outdoor experiences with The Mountaineers are transformative. We are explorers who seek adventure and challenge. We teach skills and inspire new generations of adventurers, building community and creating lifelong memories. New leaders are forged on windswept ridges and in deep, forested valleys. We come home with a passion to share and a resolution to protect wild places - the places we love. Our outdoor experiences are imbued with commitment and conviction. In short: we adventure with purpose.  Read more…

I led Mountaineers groups to trek through Peru's Cordillera Blanca in 2014 and Cordillera Huayhuash in 2016. After experiencing some of the most famous trekking adventures around the world, these remain two of my very favorites. I invite you to join me on a photo journey from these two adventures at our next Walking the Wild presentation on April 24 at the Seattle Mountaineers Program Center.  Read more…