Kristina Ciari Tursi
Do you have tips on ways to avoid blisters on a hike? Are you the best at pitching a tent in the rain? Have you created a fool-proof packing list? We want to know!
People come to The Mountaineers because we are a community connected by a shared love and appreciation for the outdoors. As one of the oldest volunteer-led clubs in the country, we just so happen to be experts in the outdoors too! Our skills and experiences have been documented in the pages of our books and in the memories of our members. We want to share even more of your personal stories in our blog and magazine, because your voice is what makes us who we are.
About our communications
Our vision for our communications is to create a sense of community while highlighting our array of volunteer-led programs to inspire more people to get involved and get outside. We hope our blog and magazine provides a platform for members to connect with each other and the world outside our doorsteps.
Mountaineer magazine
We publish Mountaineer magazine quarterly every winter, spring, summer, and fall to bring you stories, news, and insights about what's happening in The Mountaineers and the greater outdoors community. Our marquee piece, we often work 6-12 months ahead and use the magazine as a platform to highlight our most important work and elevate stories from our membership. We are always seeking personal stories from experiences within The Mountaineers.
Blog
Online, we publish 5-10 blogs per week, some of which are written by volunteers and members. Blogs are used to publicize upcoming events, find more participants for courses and trips, share tips and tricks, and highlight stories from our community. We share all of our blogs on social media, on our website homepage, and on relevant branch homepages to help publicize the amazing work of our volunteers.
Mountaineers Books
We publish 30-35 recreation, lifestyle, and conversation books each year through Mountaineers Books. This post is specifically designed to tell you about blog and magazine submissions, but you can find more information about how to pitch us a book here.
How to Submit
Contributors are generally members of The Mountaineers, or have a direct connection to our community in some way to give you an authentic voice with our readers. Blogs and features need to emanate first from the Pacific Northwest, but can have a broader reach (for example, one of our climb leaders wrote about a trip to the Karakoram and related it to the skills she learned with The Mountaineers). As a nonprofit and volunteer-led organization, all content is contributed on a volunteer basis.
We encourage you to be creative with your writing, as your name will appear as the author for any blog post or magazine article. We ask that you use a friendly, open voice that is not too technical. We prefer simple, easy-to-read posts. You may write about anything of interest to you that is relevant to our mission of conservation and recreation.
To submit a pitch, please email info@mountaineers.org with the following information:
- Article Summary: In 3-5 sentences, what topic do you hope to explore in your article? How is it relevant to The Mountaineers, and how will it benefit our community? Does it directly tie into our mission, or one of our strategic priorities?
- Estimated word count
- Sample paragraph or two, to help us become familiar with your personal style
- Photo to accompany the piece (must be horizontal/landscape orientation if it's for a blog)
Pitches should present a clear concept and should reflect familiarity with our content and tone. They need to be well-written and free of typos to warrant consideration. With over a thousand blogs published, be sure to check our archives before submitting a pitch. And if you're interested in pitching a magazine piece, we recommend looking at our magazine submission guidelines for additional information.
Once you've submitted a piece, you can expect to hear back in 5-10 business days. If we choose to go forward, we will work with you to edit the piece, and will send you a proof to review before publication. You retain ownership of the content, and are free to publish it elsewhere after it has appeared with The Mountaineers (using a canonical tag if posted online).
If you're already a Mountaineers volunteer, you can skip this step and submit your own blog. Find instructions for how to do so here.
OUr favorite stories:
Here's a list of just a few of our favorite stories, which came to us by way of a pitch, from the last year:
- A Hidden Winter Gem: Going Hut-to-Hut in Western Washington
- Footprints: Hiking vs. Carbon
- The Teenagers Who Summited Rainier... In Winter
- The Canyons are Calling - How to Explore Canyons in the PNW
- Tell Me About: Trail Running Shoes
Ideas for you to explore:
We are most interested in personal stories of transformative experiences in the outdoors, guides to local outdoor spaces, how-to pieces, and stories from your time with The Mountaineers.
We are currently seeking stories on any of these topics:
- your favorite outdoor place
- a memorable experience with The Mountaineers
- PTSD and the outdoors
- mountain weather forecasting
- how to avoid blisters
- hiking in the rain
- how to use trekking poles
- best ways to pack a backpack
- pitching a tent in the rain
- breaking down barriers
- hidden local gems
- a fool-proof packing list
- how to put on snowshoes
- how to make your own freeze dried meals
- how to wash mud off your boots
