Virtual Education Center
Welcome to The Mountaineers Virtual Education Center, your home base for accessing all of our great virtual learning tools. Find activities, events, and classes held online and browse our educational resources for skills and more. If you're a leader looking to create content, visit our Content Creation Tools, and if you're just looking to escape reality for a few minutes, check out our new Just For Fun page!
Virtual Events & Activities Online Classes
Educational Resources
- Conservation & Advocacy
- Fitness & Performance
- Gear Tips
- Leadership Skills
- Preparedness & Planning
- Technical Skills
Conservation & Advocacy
Native & Public Lands
- Online Course! Public Lands 101
- Understanding & respecting native lands
Responsible Recreation
- Online Course! Low impact recreation skills
- Leave No Trace tips for new hikers
- New! How to cut your own Christmas tree in our National Forests
reduce your carbon footprint
- Reduce the carbon footprint of your food
- Reduce the carbon footprint of your transportation
- Learn about electric vehicles
- Learn about carbon offsets
- Webinar: LED retrofits for your home
- Webinar: Learn about solar panels
- Webinar: Learn about electric vehicles
- Webinar: Eat for the planet
Climate change
- Webinar: Introduction to the Climate Crisis
- Presentation: Climate Reality 2021
- Presentation: The Big Thaw
- Presentation: Climate Change in the PNW: What's Happening, What's Going to Happen, and What You Can Do About It
Citizen Science
Fitness & Performance
Overall Fitness
- How to create your own fitness routine
- Seven steps to vibrant health
- Hike healthy as you age
- How to train for your next hike
- Train for overnight trips
- Learn how to taper to be fit and fresh for your next adventure
- Master sleep for optimal performance
- Off-season training
- Gamify your hikes to create fun for everyone
- Increasing mindfulness
- PE class for parents and kids
- Strength training at home and full body workout
- Time tested tapering
- Getting yourself and your human in shape
- New! How to create your own training program
- New! Increasing flexibility (via an indirect path)
Lower Body
Core
Upper Body
Gear Tips
General
- How to remember your gear
- How to pick out a stove
- Deal with a smash and grab
- How to wash and store gear for the season
- Nikon photography school
- How to clean and waterproof your Gore-Tex
- Packing snacks
- Backcountry Hygiene 101: you don't have to smell bad to smell better
- Gear love
- 5am is the best adventure time
- New! How to put together a layering system - from the skin-side out
Nature & Navigation
Hiking & Backpacking
- Hiking hacks
- What you need to know about trekking poles
- How to pick a sleeping bag
- How to care for your sleeping bag
- How to pick a tent
- Trail running shoes
- PCT gear list
Climbing & Glacier
Leadership Skills
General Leadership
- Create inclusive experiences for all participants
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Screen participants for safety
- Run effective volunteer meetings
- Online Course! Public Lands 101
- Understanding & respecting native lands
- Everyone has a place in the mountains
- NOLS Leadership Model
- New! Running a course in the middle of a pandemic
Mountaineers LEADERSHIP
- Online Course! Becoming a Mountaineers Leader
- Online Course! Branch/Committee Chair Training
- Fall Webinars! Redesigning Outdoor Education
- Overcoming student stress with empowerment & control
Equity & Inclusion
- 3 simple steps to get started on your equity & inclusion journey
- The Melanin Base Camp guide to outdoor allyship
- Stop using the slang word for carabiner
- What are pronouns?
- Through the crux: mastering difficult conversations
- eLesson in Unconcious Bias
- What implicit bias means and how it affects behavior
- Connecting The Dots: COVID-19, JEDI, and Conservation/the Outdoors
- Allyship, intersectionality, and more E&I resources on our committee page
Climbing Leadership
- Follow the climbing code
- Evaluate self-arrest skills without snow
- Online Course! Safe Travel at High Altitude
Leadership Conference
Each year, we host a 1-day leadership conference for 300+ of our volunteer leaders. You can access all of the resources from past events in our Leadership Conference Resource Center.
Preparedness & Planning
Preparation
- Making Safe Decisions in the Backcountry
- How to prepare for an overnight trip
- Know your knots
- Train for your next hike
- Hiking hacks
- Train for overnight trips
- Prepare for variable weather conditions
- Get ready for winter
- Prepare for the unexpected
- How to bow out of a trip gracefully
- How to plan a backpacking trip with Andrew Skurka
- Packing snacks
- 5am is the best adventure time
- New! Fun snow facts
- New! Adjusting for conditions: lessons from an unexpected year
Planning
- PCT gear list
- Menu planning for lightweight backpacking
- Online Course! Public Lands 101
- Video! Trip Planning: Goal Setting and Growth
- What's in my pack? Mamba's thru-hiking gear list
- Backcountry Hygiene 101: you don't have to smell bad to smell better
- Video! CalTopo For Trip Planning
While you're out
- How to layer in the backcountry
- How to protect from the sun on the snow
- Preventing descent accidents
- So, you suffered a smash and grab
- Leave No Trace tips for new hikers
- How to start a nature journal
- How to start birding
- New! Rainy season tips for the summer hiker
Trauma & Resilience
- Video! Mental Health, Trauma Response, & Coping
- Preparing for the Worst
- How to start a nature journal
- New! Surviving a cougar attack at Cooper Lake
Technical (& Fun!) Skills
Everyone should know these
- Online Course! Public Lands 101
- Online Course! Low impact recreation skills
- How to layer in the backcountry
- Tips for navigating slippery descents
- How to read topographical maps
- Backcountry Hygiene 101: you don't have to smell bad to smell better
- 5am is the best adventure time
- How to reduce your carbon footprint: food edition
- How to watercolor in winter
- New! Celebrating the 10 Essentials
- New! How to put together a layering system - from the skin-side out
Backpacking & Camping
- How to hang a bear bag
- Snow camping 101: an ode to the cold
- How to wash a backpack
- How to build an indoor debris shelter
- How to pick a sleeping bag
- How to care for your sleeping bag
Climbing
- Navigate on loose rock
- Know your knots
- Setting top rope anchors
- How to extend a rappel
- Extend a rappel with an autoblock
- Belaying on a friction system
- Escape a belay
- Preventing descent accidents
- Video! Beta & Brews - East Ridge of Forbidden Peak
- Video! Beta & Brews - Mt. Rainier's Liberty Ridge
- Video! Anchor Basics
- Climbing through anxiety
Cooking for the Outdoors
First Aid
- Recognize and treat a concussion
- Recognize and prevent altitude sickness
- Reduce a dislocated shoulder
Hiking
- Train for your next hike
- Hike healthy as you age
- Hiking hacks
- So you want to hike a 14'er
- Packing snacks
- Washington's wildflowers
- Leave No Trace tips for new hikers
- New! Rainy season tips for the summer hiker
Snow sports
- Five Favorite Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes
- How to protect from the sun on the snow
- Safe snowshoeing tips
- How & when to put on crampons
- Preventing descent accidents
- Glissading safely
- How to set up a crevasse rescue system
- Ski equipment of the 1930s
- Online Course! Safe Travel at High Altitude
- Video! Beta & Brews - Summer Survival Skiing for Turns All Year
- Finding fun as a first time skier
- Snow camping 101: an ode to the cold