The Mountaineers
Enjoy access to our quarterly Mountaineer magazine, keeping you up-to-date with everything our organization and community have been up to. Hear from regular contributors on topics from training exercises to trail tips, and read features from our members sharing stories from the outdoors. We encourage you to access all of our updates, stories, tips, and more in the tree free online magazine today.
Places are always there for you. They change (sometimes egregiously so) but no matter how different they are from when you last visited, and no matter how much you’ve changed in turn, they’re always waiting in welcome for your return. -Skye Michel, Editor
The stories in this edition celebrate the loyal companionship of the natural world through our various life seasons. In “Building an Inclusive Future for Menstruators Outdoors,” Angie Marie offers helpful tips on menstrual management in the backcountry and encourages us that the natural world can still be a place of joy no matter our inner season. In “Wedding Bells at Liberty Bell,” Skye Stoury and Garrett Arnold inspire us with the role the natural world plays in enhancing our relationships with the places and people we love. And in “Mindful Mountaineers,” Lori Heath and Liz McNett Crowl invite us to understand the natural world as a participant (rather than a destination) in our outdoor trips to improve our experiences and wellbeing.
Our regular columns explore this theme as well. In Outside Insights, Mountaineers leaders share how they navigate and overcome a changing relationship with outdoor recreation
amid physical, menopausal changes that alter their performance and sense of community. In Global Adventures, Amy Carlsen visits Finland’s natural world during a season of inner unrest, and experiences a welcoming change of pace that she carries with her back home. And in Conservation Currents, Conor Marshall celebrates a big advocacy win that will allow our favorite natural places to continue being accessible areas where transformative memories are made.
Regardless of which inner season you’re experiencing this spring, I hope these stories inspire you to embrace the natural world as a companion in life’s journey, ready to welcome you - whoever and however you are.
