Mountaineers Books Blog

Planning a gala today is much different than it was a few months ago. It now includes the intricate dance of supporting Safe Start Washington, shifting catering logistics for pickups and home deliveries, and all sorts of new multi-media technicalities. But for the team of staff and volunteers involved in auction planning, we’re having a lot of fun dreaming up a reimagined gala. Read more…

In case you haven’t read yet, last week we announced that our July 23 gala is going virtual. As with many organizations navigating the effects of COVID-19 we’ve had to adapt to new modes of operation, and moving our auction online is one of them. It’s come with a learning curve, but we’ve already noticed many benefits: you have more time to bid on your favorite items, it opens up opportunities for everyone to participate, and we have the opportunity to further promote businesses that have donated to the auction. Read more…

Earlier this week we announced to gala attendees that the July 23 event will now be virtual in order to protect the health and safety of guests, speakers, and staff. While we originally hoped to celebrate in-person, we’re excited about this change as it opens the event to our entire membership and hopefully provides a little light and camaraderie for our outdoor community during these challenging times. Read more…

For a couple of years, Mountaineers Leader Rena Chinn has been asking me if I wanted to start a book club with her that featured adventure and outdoor books written by women and people of color (POC). We somehow never found time with our own adventuring to fit it in. When the COVID-19 shutdown happened, we felt it was the perfect time to start our club with online meetings. Read more…

Since its earliest years, Mountaineers Books titles like The North Cascades (1964) and The Alpine Lakes (1971) have influenced the creation of national parks and protected wilderness areas through images and stories. But in 2003, something incredible happened. Read more…

Six months ago we began this Impact Giving series as a way to feature the many ways philanthropy makes a difference for The Mountaineers. This month, we’re celebrating the 60th anniversary of Mountaineers Books and how philanthropy expands the impact one book can have on an individual, a classroom, a community, and the world.  Read more…

Join author Eli Boschetto for an inside look at his new guidebook, Day Hiking Mount Hood. Eli also shares features and details about hiking Oregon’s iconic peak, including trail selections where you can avoid the crowds for safe hiking as we get accustomed to new norms for recreating in our favorite outdoor areas. Read more…

Brendan Leonard bought the url semi-rad.com for $29 in 2011, intending to write a weekly post about adventure for a year and see what happened. Almost nine years later, his writings on Semi-Rad.com are read by half a million people each year, and even more in his Semi-Rad column for Outside magazine. Read more…

Trek to wild mountain peaks, cycle around the world, paddle Alaskan waters, and take a closer look at the nature within your city this summer with our top recommendations to add to your reading list.  Read more…

Most people know Maria Hines for her culinary accomplishments. In 2005, she was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs, in 2006 she went on to open her first restaurant, Tilth, in Wallingford, and in 2009 she won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest. Read more…

Since its earliest days, The Mountaineers has been committed to conservation and stewardship of wild places. That’s why we created our Carbon Footprint Reduction Committee, tasked with helping make sure that The Mountaineers and Mountaineers Books are doing our part to address the global climate crisis.  Read more…

Are you cooking at home more these days and need some healthy but delicious recipe suggestions?  Whether you're an outdoor athlete looking to improve your performance or simply an at-home chef seeking to better your understanding of nutrition, Peak Nutrition will appeal to and inspire those interested in cultivating a healthy lifestyle in the kitchen and beyond. Read more…

Braided River, the conservation imprint of Mountaineers Books, is proud to announce that out of more than 550 entries, all four of their 2019 titles were awarded Nautilus Awards. The Big Thaw: Ancient Carbon, Modern Science, and a Race to Save the World (Braided River, 2019) was also named the Grand Award Winner, which accompanies a $2500 grant award for the author and photographer.  Read more…

A squabble over climbing styles nearly tore The Mountaineers apart in its early years. Choosing instead to put differences aside, that turmoil spawned a text so seminal that it would come to be read religiously by aspiring climbers around the world. Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills is now seen by many as the pinnacle of climbing education material, and next to it since the beginning is the nonprofit publisher Mountaineers Books. Read more…

Dear Readers,

This month of April marks the 60th anniversary of Mountaineers Books, an independent and nonprofit publisher based in Seattle. For sixty years we’ve been publishing books that educate readers about the outdoors, connect us all to wilderness places, and inspire everyone to find their own outdoor adventures. While we are widely known for our comprehensive and expertly researched guidebooks and instructional texts, we also have an extensive list of award-winning narratives—outdoor adventures, natural histories, biographies, memoirs, and more. Read more…

Imagine a bowl of fresh vegetables glistening on your kitchen counter, ready to make the most nutritious and flavorful salad or curry or pizza. It would be even more nourishing if the lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and basil came from just a few feet outside your door. Read more…

Spring has sprung and so has the growing season at local farms--all in the wake of the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak. The #WeArePugetSound book and campaign has been promoting different ways that people can show up to protect our environment in the Salish Sea. But we know a healthy environment requires healthy communities too. Read more…

When I asked Tom Hornbein about his relationship with reading over his 89-year lifespan, he didn’t answer, he simply rotated his computer forty-five degrees so I could see the room behind him on our Skype call. What was revealed was an entire wall of books, most of them about outdoor adventures, many of which were Mountaineers Books titles. Buried in his stack is surely his own book, Everest: The West Ridge, which follows his and partner Willie Unsoeld’s groundbreaking 1963 first ascent of Mt. Everest via the treacherous West Ridge. It doesn’t take a bibliophile to recognize that this collection is the mark of fervor; his ice axe long stowed, Hornbein now sits on a mountain of literature.  Read more…

The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and it's clear that spring is upon us once again. The rhythms of nature bring comfort during difficult times, and remind us that in spite of everything the world keeps turning.  Read more…

Originally published in 1983, Miles from Nowhere: A Round-the-World Bicycle Adventure  tells the exciting and heartwarming tale of Barbara and Larry Savage’s 23,000-mile bicycle odyssey, which took them through 25 countries in two years. It has provided inspiration for legions of modern travel-adventurers and writers over the years. Tragically, author Barbara Savage was killed in a cycling accident just before the book came out. 37 years after it was first published, we are thrilled to release a new edition of this classic cycling adventure. This new edition features an original foreword by award-winning writer Tara Austen Weaver, as well as an insightful interview with Barbara’s widower, Larry. Read more…

Goosebumps. The Babysitter's Club. Anything by Lurlene McDaniel or Dr. Seuss. My childhood was shaped by the stories and images in books, but I could hardly anticipate how much the books I read in college would change the course of my life. Read more…

Happy Valentine’s week, book lovers! Are you looking for The One? The page-turner that you feel was written just for you? Look no further. Whether it’s cycling, hiking, photography, poetry, or humor that makes your pulse race, we’ve lined up some books that have ‘soulmate’ written all over them. Read more…

In 2020, Mountaineers Books celebrates 60 years of nonprofit publishing and award-winning books by and for the outdoor, mountain, and conservation communities. At the same time, I am personally celebrating 20 gratifying years as Publisher. I have learned more about myself, relationships, and what truly matters in life through guiding our staff—and working with authors and photographers to share their voices and stories with enthusiastic readers and dreamers. During my tenure, we have published more than 750 books, many of which are still in print today. Read more…

While much of Zion’s scenery is best viewed on foot, there are a number of must-see destinations that visitors can enjoy with only a modest amount of walking. Of course, nobody can talk about “must-see” activities in Zion without mentioning its two most famous hikes—Angels Landing and The Narrows. This list will give you a sense of how to prioritize your agenda for a first-time visit while also giving you ideas for subsequent visits. Read more…

I anchored the boat in a bay at the mouth of a pristine coastal stream in Prince William Sound. Leaden clouds covered the valley, masking the serrated, glacier-clad peaks of the coastal range. Under the lichen-draped spruce and hemlock canopy skirting the slopes lay a carpet of moss and thickets of spiny devil’s club, alder, ferns, and blueberry bushes. Rufous hummingbirds flitted through the trees while high overhead, marbled murrelets, a small seabird, nested on the mossy limbs of four-hundred-year-old evergreens, some with a basal diameter of nine feet. Tiny birds atop forest monarchs, a scene as if envisioned by Tolkien.  Read more…

One of my earliest crack climbing memories is of a notorious route on Peak District gritstone called The Vice—a short, steep hand-and-fist crack that requires a bit of brute force and tenacity, but with the correct techniques is not overly difficult. A confident twelve-year-old me spotted the HVS (5.10) grade in the Stanage guidebook, thought “that’s within my ability,” and then spent the next 20 minutes dangling on the end of a tight rope with my feet paddling the air and brushing the ground. Read more…

Dee Molenaar, an international mountaineering legend, Pacific Northwest hero, climber, geologist, and artist, passed away on Saturday, January 19, 2020. He was 101. A public memorial will be held on Sunday, October 10, 2021.  Read more…

Happy New Year—and Happy New Decade! We wanted to take this opportunity, at the onset of the 2020s, to review the past year and all the books, authors, and impacts that we discovered and shared: Read more…

We share a lot of content through our blog. With a community of 14,000 Mountaineers participating in courses, trips, activities, and so much more all the time, plus a nonprofit publishing division creating 30-35 books a year, we have plenty to share. Here are our Top 10 most read blogs of 2019:  Read more…

In 1986, Canadian Sharon Wood became the first North American woman to summit Mt. Everest and is still one of the very few who have accomplished the summit via the West Ridge. As we look forward to her BeWild presentation on January 9, we would like to take a moment to share an excerpt from her new release Rising: Becoming the First North American Woman on Everest. It has been edited for length. Read more…