Mountaineers Internal Lottery: Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about our Internal Lottery process for prioritizing course field trip scheduling at specific route/places.
What is the Internal Lottery?
Due to complicated USFS permitting processes in the Leavenworth area, as well as a growing demand for teaching locations by The Mountaineers courses, the Internal Lottery was instituted to allow course leaders to plan their field trips while balancing access to the most popular teaching locations. The locations currently included in the internal lottery are Leavenworth, Mt. Erie, Vantage, Tieton, Coleman Seracs, Observation Rock, Paradise, and Mt. Baker Recreation Area. The lottery request form is made available to relevant committee chairs and course leaders by late March, and results are published by late May.
Which activity types are part of the lottery?
The internal lottery initially only included climbing courses, and was expanded two years ago to include other courses that teach at these high use areas (scrambling, snowshoeing, and backcountry skiing). This lottery is only for course-related field trips (not stand-alone activities).
How are field trips selected in the lottery?
Each branch chair is asked to prioritize all field trips that were submitted by their branch, by location. Mountaineers staff determines the branch selection order based on how many lottery requests were denied the previous year (the branch with the most denied requests in 2019 gets #1 priority in 2020, the second-most denied requests gets #2 priority, and so on). Leaders who are submitting field trips to the internal lottery are highly encouraged to include alternate dates and locations for their field trips, which are assigned in the case of conflict with a higher priority trip. Then we work through the list, notify field trip leaders and committee chairs, and post the results for each route/place's lottery on that route/place page.
My trip was selected, now what?
As soon as you're ready, go ahead and schedule your trip on our website at the appropriate route/place. This lets others know that you plan to be there -- your lottery "win" essentially gives you priority (within The Mountaineers) to schedule your trip at that route/place on the day(s) you requested. For a few route/places in the lottery, there are extra steps. For Paradise, you may need to secure a Special Use Permit directly through Mt. Rainier National Park. For Mt. Erie, you'll need to reach out to Anacortes Parks & Recreation ahead of your trip to give parks staff notice about your trip. And for Leavenworth, our internal lottery serves as a way for us to prioritize trips among branches and courses, but the final determination on which dates/locations/user days we are given (as an organization) is made by the Wenatchee River Ranger District staff in their Rock Lottery in early-mid March.
What if I change my mind later?
We recognize that lots of things can change between when the internal lottery is run and when your course trips are scheduled to occur. If you no longer plan to run a trip that you were awarded in the lottery, or want to add a field trip on a date that no other course requested in the lottery, please contact staff as soon as possible so we can edit the lottery results accordingly and notify land managers, if necessary. Please email info@mountaineers.org if you're unsure who to contact.
I think there's another route/place or activity type that should be added to the internal lottery -- who do I talk to?
Please reach out to staff via info@mountaineers.org so we can connect with other committee and course leaders as needed to determine the best course of action.