Courses & Activities

My knees sank into the snow. I had my face close to the quilt of white that covered the stair-step moss. In a few places, their feathery green leaves showed through. These are one of the biggest mosses in the Pacific Northwest. A new leaf grows each year from the stem of last year’s. An elegant bryophyte, with lacy foliage, it can form a matt a foot or more, thick. The combination of snow and moss made the forest floor look like a thick and fluffy winter comforter had been thrown across it. The leaf tissue looked frozen and shriveled, but it smelled alive; vibrant life was just waiting for a warm day. Read more…

The wind was unreliable and moody that day. It was a typical Pacific Northwest early April morning: overcast and chilly but with a crisp tinge of salt in the air. My wife, Michelle, and I were at Shilshole Marina, just west of Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, to take part in the Blakely Rock Benefit Race (sponsored by Sloop Tavern Yacht Club). We had both just finished the Mountaineers sailing class, but, here we were, about to partake in a major sailing event. Read more…

For three Novembers in a row my husband and I have traveled to Asia, hoping to avoid the worst of the Seattle weather and a certain amount of election news hysteria, always with the goal of exploring by hiking rather than just hitting the classic tourist spots. We travel on our own, no tour group, just three nights booked ahead in a hotel and figure it out from there. We spent four weeks in Taiwan in 2016; three weeks in Hong Kong (no, it’s not just skyscrapers) in 2017; and this year three weeks in northern Thailand, starting in Chiang Mai. Read more…

As Washingtonians, we know firsthand that Puget Sound is home to astonishing wildlife and beauty. This spectacular inland sea is a rich, life-sustaining home shared by two countries, a province, a state, and over 50 Native American Tribes and First Nations. But the vibrant blue waters can be deceiving - hiding stressed wildlife, pollution, and impacts from thoughtless development and climate change. We can change that, but we need your help. Read more…

Two geological wonders are hiding in Fort Rock State Park. Learn more about these hidden gems in our second installment of a blog series we're calling "Back-Road Adventures in Oregon". If you haven't, read the first blog about the history of Fort Rock State Park.  Read more…

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…

Trail Tails is a special feature showcasing the mutts of The Mountaineers! This month we recognize Coulson, owned by Mountaineer Darcy Jayne.  Read more…

Jim Whittaker, a living legend among mountaineers worldwide, is a father, husband, environmentalist, and author. He is recognized as one the most influential climbers in American history, and is a visionary business and community leader in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. We're proud to count 'Big Jim' as a Mountaineers member, and invite you to join us in wishing him, and his twin brother Lou, a very happy 90th birthday today!   Read more…

After a long day outside with new friends, sometimes a food stop is in order on the way home. Here are the stops I have enjoyed most in the Olympics and South Cascades.  Read more…

On January 21, 2019, Mountaineers Books hosted a free web cast with avalanche expert Bruce Tremper, alongside our friends from Black Diamond and Colorado Mountain Club. Our audience members had a lot (a lot!) of questions for Bruce, and some of them were tough! Though we were not able to get to all the questions in the allocated hour, we forwarded them to Bruce to answer. Here are his responses (answers edited for clarity): Read more…

There’s nothing like sharing the great outdoors with your best friend. However, it’s important to keep trail etiquette and safety in mind when you explore with a dog in tow. Below are excerpts from the Mountaineers Books title Best Hikes with Dogs: Western Washington by Dan A. Nelson. Learn what to do (and not to do!) when you and Fido hit the trail. Read more…

In 1965 Jim Whittaker led Senator Robert Kennedy to the first ascent of a remote mountain in the Yukon named after the late president, JFK. Fifty years later, the sons of the original climbing team - a raucous band manager, a candidate for governor, and a young mountaineer - embark on an expedition to the mountain to celebrate the special bond that connects them all. Featuring unreleased instrumentals by Eddie Vedder and never before seen footage and photos of Robert Kennedy, the feature-length documentary sits at the intersection of politics, human rights, environmentalism, and adventure. Read more…

Discover Austria! Join us on a Global Adventure where we will be hiking in a little-known area of the Austrian Alps. Hike the European way: combine stunning scenery with uncrowded trails, comfortable lodging, tasty cuisine, and high mountain huts. We’ll wander through alpine meadows and across rock slopes, have lunch at scenic huts, reach high tarns and passes, and see breathtaking views. Learn how trek the mountains traveling hut-to-hut! Read more…

As Mountaineers, we enjoy thousands of miles of trails and waterways throughout our public lands. We must set a compelling example as principled stewards who are willing to work hard to maintain the lands we enjoy. The Olympia Branch is challenging you to dedicate one day (or more!) this year to stewarding our public lands. This challenge is a great way to give back to our outdoor playgrounds and meet a vibrant community of volunteers. Read more…

Mountaineers members can earn badges and peak pin awards for completing different objectives in Washington and beyond. If you're looking for new ideas, look no further than our list of Award Badges! And join us in congratulating the 2018 class on their collective achievements. Read more…

I moved to Seattle in the summer of 2016 because I no longer really knew who I was, or what I was doing with my life, but I knew that I couldn’t continue living in New York City, with its crowds and smells and weird roommate situations. I had visited Seattle twice before I moved here, and while I didn’t know a lot about the city, I knew that the proximity to the water and the mountains and the boundless natural beauty made me feel better, and I wanted to feel better. So I moved. Read more…

Whether you're planning a section hike or a thru hike, our experts are here to help. We asked the authors of our Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail guidebooks to give us their top tips to prepare.   Read more…

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…

Fort Rock State Park is a geological wonder located just outside Christmas Valley, Oregon. It's a horseshoe shaped volcanic maar, formed of tuff breccias that tower some 325 feet above the flat desert floor between fifty and one-hundred thousand years ago. It was formed when super heated basalt magma came into contact with ground water, causing an explosive eruption. Read more…

It’s no secret that exploring on foot has become not just my favorite thing to do but also my favorite thing to talk about. So I was thrilled when family, friends, and friends of friends started asking for my advice on how to do it. I loved helping them prepare for their trips and hearing their stories once they were back. But the most exciting thing to me was that people who started exploring on foot didn’t want to stop—just like me! Even before they finished their first trail, they were already thinking about the next.  Read more…

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…

Backpacking season will be upon us before we know it, and we have more options than ever to help you kick-start your backcountry dreams. Courses are available for adults at all skill and experience levels, as well as for families who want to take kids out on the trail. And, you're welcome to take a course with any branch regardless of your branch affiliation. Be sure to sign up for courses while you can, they fill up quickly!   Read more…

In the peak of ski season, we asked the authors of our Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes guidebooks to spill the beans on their favorite routes. Following are their faves – out of the 100 or so tours in each of their books. Below is the beta and general route description as excerpted from each book. Read more…

Whistler is know for its skiing and snowboarding and was the location of the 2010 Olympics. It's been on my bucket list for a while now, but I've been so involved with hikes at Mt. Rainier during the summer, that I forget about it until the season turns cold and wet. It's also supposed to have good hiking trails for the warmer months, so that's why I wanted to go. Read more…

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…

On the evening of May 14, 2018, my wife Kathy “OBAL Unbranded” Vaughan and myself, aka Team UltraPedestrian, set out hiking south along the Idaho Centennial Trail from the small town of Hammett, Idaho. On November 5, after covering more than 2,600 miles on foot over the course of 174 days, 22 hours, and 25 minutes, we returned to our starting point, completing the first ever Inland Northwest Loop. Read more…

Bruce Tremper is the author of Staying Alive In Avalanche Terrain, which has just been published in the third edition. Staying Alive is the country's best-selling book on how to stay safe in  avalanche country.  Read more…

Climbing mountains requires a lot of energy, risk management, and the ability to lean into difficult situations. In this new speaker series, sponsored by the Seattle Climbing Committee, hear from four local outdoor experts in a series of seminars on nutrition, high altitude travel, mountain weather, and dealing with head trauma. Read more…

Calling all “go big or go home” winter enthusiasts! Get ready to get goosebumps while you “Ooh!” and “Ahh!” at the impact and importance of our winter wildlands through this collection of short films. The fourteenth annual Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival will screen in  Bellevue on January 10 and in Seattle at The Mountaineers Seattle Program Center on January 21.  Read more…

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…