Foothills Volunteer Spotlight: Magda Bojarska

Meet Magda Bojarska, a Foothills climb, scramble, and hike leader, as well as a 2021 Super Volunteer and Key Leader. Magda joined The Mountaineers in 2018 to find some hiking buddies and immediately found a sense of community. Since then, she’s participated in many Mountaineers courses and activities, including Alpine Scrambling and Alpine Climbing, and is now an enthusiastic leader and instructor for The Mountaineers.

What brought you to the Pacific Northwest and when did you come?

I was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland and I came to the Pacific Northwest in November 2015 after receiving a job offer as a software engineer in the Seattle area. For the first 1.5 years I was living in Vancouver, BC and finally moved to Seattle in May 2017.

What attracted you to The Mountaineers?

My parents introduced me to the mountains and hiking when I was a small child. I continued that passion throughout my life, moving from small hikes with my mum to doing 3-week long backpacking trips on various European mountains. So obviously when I moved to PNW I wanted to get out as much as possible. I tried to drag some of my friends with me, but soon it became obvious that they were mainly interested in small day hikes while I was interested in long, vigorous hikes. After two summers of mostly solo hiking, I decided to search for some outdoor communities in the area and found The Mountaineers. I missed the deadline to apply for the Basic Alpine Climbing course that year by a few days. So as a consolation, I signed up for a Basic Alpine Scrambling course. In hindsight, I am very happy I missed that particular deadline! It delayed my climbing journey by a year, but exposed me to the wonderful world of scrambling.

What have been your favorite volunteer memories with The Mountaineers?

What I love the most about volunteering with The Mountaineers is the camaraderie and sense of community with fellow volunteers, students, and participants. On the field trip for my Intermediate Glacier Travel course last winter, I started a snowball fight with other instructors, and soon after students also joined. I have terrible aim, so most of the snowballs I threw were absolutely harmless (and useless). Finally, when I managed to hit someone that afternoon (not for lack of trying), everyone around was like "yay Magda, you finally hit someone!" Well, I was aiming at the person standing 10 feet from the victim… so yes, if you are in a snowball fight with me, you want to be the person I am aiming at - otherwise you may get hit by a snowball!

What are your favorite activities and places in the PNW?

My favorite outings are those that are to summits. That can be a day hike, scramble, or climb, it doesn't matter. I am not a fan of hiking just to a lake or ridge (there is nothing wrong with either of those - I just prefer summits!). I love that feeling of standing on top of the mountain and seeing a beautiful panoramic view around me. I also love remote places where I can leave everything (like my work and everyday problems) behind and just enjoy the experience and beauty around me. Maybe that's why I am especially attracted to scrambles and climbs, since in both activities you are leaving the beaten path (and other people) behind. I don't think I have a favorite place (or maybe there are too many of them to count), but I definitely have favorite types of views. First is the alpenglow on a climb after the alpine start, and second is the sea of clouds below me with just peaks of surrounding mountains visible.