Olympia Adventure Speakers Committee
Join the Olympia Mountaineers for our evening socials, featuring speakers guaranteed to inspire your next adventure.
The Adventure Speaker Series meets on the first Wednesday of the month, November through April. We meet at the Friends Meeting House, 3201 Boston Harbor Rd. NE, Olympia 98506.
We follow the Mountaineer COVID guidelines.
6:00- Door opens. Meet the Mountaineers, check out our library, watch the audiovisual presentation or pick up pamphlets on membership, activities, and classes.
6:45- Branch announcements of upcoming classes and events.
7:00- The Adventure Speaker Series starts promptly at 7pm. Arrive earlier for parking and seating.
The event is free, but we encourage you to RSVP. Our RSVP sign up links will be added to this site soon.
For more information, contact Carolyn Burreson.
2022-2023 Olympia Mountaineers Adventure Speaker Series
November 2- Paul Souders Arctic Solitaire
For more than thirty years, Paul Souders’ adventure travels have taken him across all seven continents as a professional photographer. His photography has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including National Geographic, Geo (France and Germany), Time, and Life magazines. His images have won first place awards at the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions the National Geographic Photo of the Year contest, and Grand Prize in the Big Picture Competition. Paul lives in Seattle with his wife Janet and pup, Lulu. You can follow his adventures at worldfoto.com and www.photoboy.com.
December 7 - Craig Romano - Backpacking Washington new edition 2021
Come backpack Washington with award winning guidebook author, Craig Romano. Drawing from his latest release, Craig will be spotlighting spectacular backpacking destinations from the wild Olympic Coast to the sun kissed canyons of the Blue Mountains. Highlights include Mount Olympus’s Glacier Meadows, Mount St Helens’ Loowit Trail, the Pasayten Wilderness’s Cathedral Lakes, Northeastern Washington’s Salmo-Priest Wilderness—and so many more stunning trips. Backpacking Washington includes 80 trips from throughout the state ranging from 14 to 46 miles—making them perfect for weekend and weeklong adventures. Romano has written more than 25 books and has hiked more than 30,000 miles in Washington.
January 4- Tami Asar- Fall Color Hikes- Washington (new August 2022)
Tami Asars is an outdoor writer and nature photographer living in the Cascade foothills of Washington with her husband, Vilnis, and her rough collie, Scout. She is the author of five hiking guides, including Hiking the Wonderland Trail and Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail: Washington, as well as a contributor for outdoor publications and online hiking resources. Her work has appeared in several magazines, including Alaska Airlines, City Dog, Washington Trails, and Washington Magazine. www.tamiasars.com
February 1- Leslie Romer- Lost Fire Lookouts. Hikes and Histories. Olympic Peninsula and Willapa Hills. 2021
Local Mountaineer, Leslie Romer, has been hunting and discovering the locations of fire lookout sites in the Northwest and Southwest US for twenty years. She has hiked to almost every fire lookout site between the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Columbia River. She will share her favorite adventure hikes in this coastal region with us through pictures and stories. Copies of her book, Lost Fire Lookout Hikes and Histories: Olympic Peninsula and Willapa Hills, will be available.
March 1- Lauren Braden- 52 ways to Nature: Washington By Season Places to visit around the state. Activities, history, flora, fauna and cultural notes. 2022
The presentation will highlight ways to get outdoors and experience nature in spring, summer, autumn and winter: from waterfall hikes to apple picking, from cross country skiing to digging for clams. Each of the 52 adventures in the book features a detailed “how to” section, places to go and try each activity, and a guided nature journal prompt so that you can record your connections to nature and make memories.
Lauren is an outdoors and travel writer in Seattle, and founded the local trip-planning website Northwest TripFinder. She is passionate about connecting Pacific Northwesterners to close-to-home getaways and outdoor adventures that nurture the soul. Her work has been featured in Washington Trails, ParentMap, Outdoors NW, and the Seattle PI, as well as in books on travel, gardening, and citizen activism. She lives in Seattle with her beloved veggie garden, husband, young son, and their golden retriever.