Olympia Explorers 2023/2024

Please read this description in its entirety before registering.

Note: Explorers membership is $450 in total for  year.  Participants may register here and pay in full, or may contact clairee@mountaineers.org to set up a quarterly payment plan. 

We offer financial assistance! To apply for financial assistance click here.

Our Explorers program provides youth ages 6-11 and their parents/guardians with the opportunity to get outside once a month. The goal is to learn about various outdoor recreational activities, understand basic rock climbing skills, develop a sense of understanding how to climb outdoors, assess risk, and understand personally boundaries when working with a group.

Explorer members will spend one day a month working on their skills and getting outside once a month to practice skills learned in monthly meetings. 

Explorers will be supported by both Mountaineers staff as well as parents who are approved for leading trips.  Parents will play an active role in supporting their children by actively participating on the trips, supervising their youth, and possibly even leading some trips if they feel ready. We will provide opportunities for parents to advance their own outdoor skills as well as learn key skills for leading kids safely in the outdoors. This program will focus on skill-building for both youth and adults, and on building an outdoor community.

Explorers is a club and requires a time commitment and program fee  (which can be paid in installments). In return, members gain a community of outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy spending time learning skills together. As families grow through our programs, lifelong friendships are built. When graduates of our teen program come home from college, they meet up with other Mountaineers friends to go hiking, backpacking and climbing. This program is just the beginning.

Note: Youth ages 6-11 register as participants, and therefore pay the registration and program fee. Parents should become a Qualified Youth Leader and then register for the Pathfinders program as a  Chaperone (there is no fee for this).