Most Popular Blogs

Water has always been a big part of my life. I got certified as a SCUBA diver in the 9th grade, was a swimmer through high school, have whitewater rafted on three continents, and got an advanced diving certification during my honeymoon. Read more…

How do industry trends affect, shape, and impact our programs at The Mountaineers? If this is a question that you've ever considered – and a conversation that you're interested in being a part of – we invite you to join The Mountaineers at this year's Wilderness Risk Management Conference in Albuquerque, NM. Read more…

A bill to designate the Mountains to Sound Greenway as a National Heritage Area and another to safeguard the Methow Valley from mining made it out of Senate committee hearings. The action brings two treasured Washington landscapes one step closer to being recognized and protected. Now, the many champions of these lands and waters will call on Congress to pass the bills into law.  Read more…

Hiking is a great way to appreciate our lush forests, mountains, and rivers in the Northwest, especially if you’re just starting to explore the outdoors. Learn about how to choose gear, select hikes, practice trail etiquette, and more, to make the most of your time on the trail.   Read more…

On September 19, 1996, REI opened the doors to its first flagship store in downtown Seattle to serve as a hub for its co-op members. Twenty-five years later, you’ll still find the store bustling with outdoor enthusiasts searching for top quality gear, seeking expert advice, and receiving service from a pro technician. To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the REI Seattle flagship store is inviting you to eat, drink, and socialize to support conservation work at The Mountaineers. Read more…

As Mountaineers, we are committed to learning from our experiences. We examine every incident that happens on a Mountaineers trip for opportunities to improve the ways we explore and teach. Our volunteer safety committee reviews every incident report and picks a few each month to share as examples of ‘Lessons Learned’. The trip report below describes what happened on this trip, in the leader’s own words, and outlines the lessons the leader has identified. In some cases, we offer additional key learnings from the incident. Read more…

Meet Our Park's Adventurer Lace Thornberg, who, with one last weekend of this challenge left to go, is ready to overnight it in Olympic National Park.  Read more…

Meany Lodge will be adventure central the first weekend of August with exciting outdoor activities for all ages. Swim in a mountain lake, take a berry hike through acres of salmon berries, huckleberries, and wild strawberries, pedal alongside the reservoir, or wander the lodge property. Read more…

Hometown: Seattle Washington
Member Since: 1970
Occupation: Retired Engineer
Favorite Things to Photograph: Mountain scenery Read more…

At The Mountaineers, we believe a diverse and inclusive outdoors inspires unity, respect, and passion for the places we love. We aspire to offer outdoor opportunities for ALL, and have assembled a board-chartered Equity & Inclusion (E&I) Committee to direct our strategy, priorities, and resourcing to make progress on this goal. We have recently completed our committee charter, and are planning our next town hall style listening session to gather your feedback and share some of the results of our committee work. Read more…

When  Mountaineering Club debuted earlier this year, rumor had it that The Mountaineers had opened a new bar on the roof of Seattle's Graduate Hotel! While the rumor isn't true, we're still excited to share that we'll be partnering with Mountaineering Club throughout the year on a handful of parties and projects. Up first - a summer kick-off to celebrate the new season of warm-weather activities! Mark your calendars for June 12! Read more…

On behalf of The Mountaineers, I’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to our longest standing member: Mary Anderson – a Washington State native, co-founder of REI with her husband Lloyd, one of a handful of Mountaineers instrumental in setting up the climbing course in 1936, and a longtime teacher in the Seattle Public School District. Read more…

Meet Addison - an eight year old with a quiet yet self-assured presence. Addison, like all Mountaineers, loves the outdoors. She loves swimming, fishing, kayaking, rock climbing, and camping in her family’s gigantic tent – “no seriously, it’s gigantic!” she’ll tell you. Read more…

We believe we have a responsibility to build a community that welcomes climbers of all types - new climbers, climbers new to the area, climbers from every community, hard core climbers, and those of us that dabble in climbing. That's why we embarked on a project called Progressive Climbing Education - an initiative to re-think our program design to better meet the needs of the climbing community and better achieve our mission. The first step involved intensive information-seeking, then we took the feedback to simplify our project goals. One of those goals is to "Create a Welcoming Community."  Read more…

Picnics and northwest summer evenings are made for each other, and they're even even better when the picnic offers your first chance to gather in person with other Olympia Branch members in over a year.  We invite you to join us for our summer picnic on August 4.  Read more…

Are you looking to beat the crowds, and to get out on the trail when it’s a bit less busy? Do you have a flexible schedule mid-week? If so, you should consider a Mid-Week Hike! Read more…

Upon starting the second rappel from the summit of The Tooth, a Basic student  hit his knee on the rock. He said it was fine, and after a minute to recompose himself, nothing more was discussed until after our final rappel to the rock field below the base of the climb. Read more…

The black bird flew around the dock, showing long, white patches on its wings, and dropped its fire-engine red feet to land on the water with hardly a splash. The pigeon guillemot then looked both directions before diving. Its stubby wings flapped gently under the water as it headed to the shallow bottom in search of food. I caught glimpses of other guillemots coming and going while standing on the dock in Langley on Whidbey Island – some were nesting and may have had nestlings to feed – but the one below me disappeared entirely into the depths. Read more…

Skiers and snowboarders in Washington State are lucky to enjoy a wide range of opportunities to zip down the hill. You want the deepest snow? Head to Mt. Baker. Easy access from Seattle? Snoqualmie has you covered. Looking for something small and community-oriented? Visit Meany Lodge! With a range of options to choose from, Washingtonians have it pretty good. Over the past 100 years though, the ski map of Washington has changed dramatically. The Cascade and Olympic Mountains have been home to dozens of resorts, and the ones you see now are the few that remain. Of the current popular areas, few were present in the minds of skiers before the last few decades. Buckle your boots – we’re going for a trip to the hidden gems of yesteryear. Read more…

I fell in love with the snow as a child. We didn’t have a lot of the white stuff where I grew up near London, England but I was fortunate in that my parents took my brother and I skiing in Austria. Every winter after that I tried to get in at least one ski vacation.  Read more…

Mountaineering is an expensive sport. It's especially daunting for beginners, who often have to prioritize spending across competing items. With a fixed amount of money, do you go for Gore-Tex undies, an ice axe made of sleek unobtanium . . . or yawn, a compass? (Let's face it, a shiny new cam is way sexier than a compass.) Read more…

The Nooksack Access Travel Management project in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest seeks to identifying roads to retain, roads that are no longer needed, and roads that need work to stay open. The major roads for recreational users included in this project area are Glacier Creek, Hannegan Pass, Skyline Divide, and Canyon Creek Road.  Read more…

My success as a climber was far from guaranteed.

Growing up Jewish, an ethnicity stereotyped as bookish and non-athletic, I struggled with scoliosis, a lazy eye, orthotic shoes, and a disability that impairs hand-eye (brain) coordination. In my urban Los Angeles elementary school, our “special” PE class endured taunts of “Retard PE!” from the “normal” kids. Add on teenaged depression/anxiety, an eating disorder, lifelong PTSD - in part from childhood bullying - and a bit of confusion (self-judgment) around gender and orientation, and I felt like a freak. Read more…

Getting outside and enjoying nature doesn't just mean going on hikes, backpacking, climbing, etc. As some of us age, it's not as easy to do those things, as much as we want to (and enjoyed them previously). For me, it can be something as simple as walking through a park while photographing what I see and identifying plants, birds (by sound), and animals. Read more…

Each week we bring you a personal story from one of our members. For our member profile this week we talked to... Read more…

In January 2020, we invited our members and volunteers, past and present, to participate in a member and volunteer survey. We wanted to learn how their perceptions of and experiences with our club have changed since our last surveys in 2011, 2014, 2016, and 2018. We compare these responses with past survey data to track patterns showing how we’ve grown and changed, and to identify opportunities to improve.  Read more…

Hiking is a wonderful way to get outside, stretch your legs, and see the best of what the Northwest has to offer. However, it’s important to be mindful of the impacts that we can have on our public lands by doing our best to keep the places we visit wild and pristine. Read more…

A 94-year-old Northwest native, Fred Beckey is the quintessential “dirtbag” - the original in a breed of rebellious, fearless mountain climbers. Director Dave O’Leske spent 10 years shadowing Beckey throughout the world as chronicled those tales in DIRTBAG. We hope you'll join us for a special screenings September 9 or 16! Read more…

Each week we bring you a personal story from one of our members. For our member profile this week we talked to.... Read more…

The word “legend” often evokes tall tales, stories whose veracity is less relevant than our collective belief in the incredible. Amidst the giant lumberjacks, sea monsters, and ‘there be dragons’ marks on the map, however, there do exist flesh-and-blood legends. Their footsteps are a little smaller and their voices a little softer, but they are there, crafting history. Read more…