Mountaineer Magazine

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Tying In | Spring 2024 Leadership Update

About a year ago, we unveiled our recently-updated strategic plan, Adventure with Purpose. We have shared the implementation plan details and progress toward our goals with our community in various ways, including at our Annual Meeting, at the State of the Organization presentation, and through blog posts. We’ve also been doing Adventure with Purpose updates at each of our board meetings, highlighting one of our three strategic priorities: Lead Innovation in Outdoor Education, Engage a Vibrant Community of Outdoor Enthusiasts, and Advocate on Behalf of the Natural World. Read more…

Mountaineer of the Week: Jason Naranjo

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

Mountaineer Magazine Spring 2024

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. Read more…

Outside Insights | The Return of The Mountaineers Leadership Conference

As part of The Mountaineers leadership development team, I have the privilege of supporting our impressive collective of 3000+ volunteers. The dedication of our volunteers is incredible, to say the least. The list of their contributions to our community and the greater outdoors has grown significantly over our 117-year history. From planning and guiding activities, to mentoring new Mountaineers, to managing our lodges, it’s clear that our volunteers are generous with their time. While they share a common passion for the outdoors, our volunteers are driven by a range of motivations, such as paying it forward or expanding their adventure partner network. Our leadership development programs enhance these intrinsic rewards and invest back into our volunteers. Read more…

Trail Talk | Accepting Change in Life and on the Trail

The only thing constant in life is change. You can never go home again. All things must pass. These thoughts continuously run through my mind as I progress further along my life journey. I’ve always had a strong sense of time and place, which leaves me melancholically longing for the past and lamenting the passing of moments which I perceive as being more favorable than the present. The world is changing rapidly, and often not in ways I welcome. Constant change can be exciting or, if you’re wired like me, a source of anxiety. To counter the barrage of forces I can’t control, I often seek the solace of wilderness, where I expect insulation from the rapid transformations of the outside world. Read more…

The Winter Solace of Birds

It was early February 2021, and Seattle had been darkened by overcast and rainy skies for weeks. Even worse, we were eleven months into the pandemic, and I was feeling isolated. Birds in my yard had been my only physical companions throughout Covid. Other than my two sisters I’d visited in Pennsylvania, I’d not been hugged or, for that matter, even had a handshake since the previous March. I generally don’t mind solitude, but that degree of isolation felt far different. Read more…

Global Adventures | Medieval Babies and Overstuffed Ski Bags

In the winter of 1205, two Norwegian Birkebeiner warriors donned crude plank skis and shuffled off into severely cold, windy weather to cross a snowy mountain, one of them carrying a swaddled baby on his back. Their mission? To safely transport the baby 54 kilometers from Lillehammer to Rena as a civil war raged. The child was heir to the throne and being targeted by a faction competing with the more dominant Birkebeiners, to whom he belonged. Read more…

From ATVs to Nordic Skis: How Alaska Shaped My Love for the Outdoors

I got my first snowmachine when I was two, my first ATV when I was four, and my first gun when I was nine. My snowmachine was an Arctic Cat “Kitty Cat,” a real, gas-drinking motorized vehicle, miniaturized with a 90s brand of teal and purple striping on black casing. The ATV – four wheels for four years – was a zippy red Suzuki. My first gun was a BB. Read more…

Peak Performance | Incorporating Recovery Into Your Training Routine

Living a modern lifestyle means keeping up with a lot, especially if you want to fit everything in. When it comes to trips outdoors, how do you balance training hard to perform while feeling rested enough so you can be your best? How do you avoid the risk of burnout, injury, and exhaustion? The answer is recovery. Read more…

Youth Outside | Unlocking Adventure: The Seattle Day Camp Lottery

Being someone who hasn't yet experienced parenthood, I'm unfamiliar with the most challenging aspects of raising children. However, as a summer camp professional, I do have a backstage pass to what appears to be one of the more stressful parts of being a Seattle area guardian: camp registration. For camps in the Seattle region, summer camp enrollment can begin as early as January. In the thick of winter, with summer far behind, families play scheduling Tetris to guarantee childcare and transformative summer experiences for their kids. Read more…

Did You Know? DIY Snowshoes

Getting new winter gear is usually great for the ego and painful for the bank account... but it doesn’t have to be. Did you know you can make your own snowshoes? And for quite cheap, too. Read more…

Top 10 Mountaineers of Instagram: Inspiration for 2024

The Mountaineers launched our Instagram (@mountaineersorg) in 2014 as a way to celebrate the adventurous spirit of our community, the beauty of our natural landscapes, and the myriad types of outdoor experiences we have access to in the Pacific Northwest. From star-lit campsites to sun-kissed summits to smile-filled stewardship, Mountaineers are eager to share their photo-rich trip reports and inspire others to appreciate and protect the special places that we’re lucky enough to call home. Read more…

Impact Giving | A Classroom With a View

In a North Seattle public school, 65 miles from Mt. Rainier, Kelsey Hoffman’s classroom is engaged in an unusual last-day-of-school activity. Read more…

Toe-tally Not Cool: The Bunion Chronicles

I was at the airport, ready to board a plane for my much anticipated trip to Europe. My plan was to summit Mont Blanc and, if possible, do some rock climbing. I'd spent hours refreshing the hut reservation website to secure a spot, so the anticipation was sky-high. I dream of climbing all Seven Summits one day, and Mont Blanc seemed like the perfect starting point. Read more…

Conservation Currents | Standing at the Intersection of Conservation and Outdoor Access

In July 2021, my wife and I navigated high-season crowds to Colchuck Lake on our first adventure in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, one of the most visited Wilderness Areas in the country. We arrived early and still had to park a mile from the trailhead. During the hike, we passed by throngs of other outdoor enthusiasts. Experiencing this bustle didn’t diminish the stunning views and thrill of wide-open spaces, but it did underscore the need to harmonize recreation with the protection of this beloved landscape. Read more…

Retro Rewind | Early Ski Mountaineering at Snoqualmie Pass

Long before beacons, Gore-Tex, groomers, or even the assurance of a good helmet: Mountaineers were on skis. They were a curious group, dressed in thick wool, without the ability to check snow conditions or rest their tired legs on a chair lift between laps. Still, they remained eager, stubborn, and terribly enthusiastic about the variable winter season. With keen interest and experimentation, these skiers unknowingly laid the groundwork for generations of powder hounds to come. Read more…

Mountaineer Magazine Winter 2024

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. Read more…

Mountaineer of the Week: Finlay Rebbeck

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

Global Adventures | Hiking Through History: The Jordan Trail

Toiling up a dry mountain shoulder in desert heat, I briefly question why I signed on to hike the highlights of Jordan’s national trail on a Mountaineers Global Adventures trip. Then I crest the shoulder of Jordan’s Grand Canyon and see the Dead Sea glimmering in the hot haze. I remember that this place has history. Jordan encompasses the biblical land of Moab. Nearby Mt. Nebo, above the Dead Sea, is where Moses saw the Promised Land. To the south, where we’re headed, lies Edom,  abled site of Sodom and Gomorrah. Visiting the desiccated salt flats around the Dead Sea, I can see these stories come to life. Read more…

Youth Outside | Transformative Partnerships

Each year, our Mountain Workshop program gets over 1,000 young people outside. Mountain Workshops are single or multi-day experiences designed in partnership with other youth-serving organizations. They are collaboratively designed to create memorable and accessible outdoor recreation experiences for youth while meeting the needs and goals of their respective communities. Read more…

Forget the Day, Seize Life

I just signed up for my first 100k trail run. Call it Existential Crisis Number — who knows, as I’ve had so many now, I’ve lost count! I was cursed at a young age knowing that there are so many things to experience in life, yet so little time to do them. This curse was also a blessing, as I’ve tried to live my life to the fullest, not wanting to waste a moment as moments are finite. Read more…

Breakups and Breakthroughs: Finding my Independence in the Outdoors

It was November 2018, and I was sobbing in my car at the Seattle Bouldering Project (SBP). David had just broken up with me. He was a skier, mountaineer, and climber I’d met six weeks prior. I’d fallen head over heels with both him and the rock climbing hobby he introduced me to. Read more…

The Mountaineers Equity & Inclusion Leader Toolkit: Fostering Belonging in the Outdoors

The outdoors has always been a source of inspiration and rejuvenation. It presents an opportunity to forge deep connections with nature, push our boundaries, and craft lasting memories. At The Mountaineers, we believe all people should have equitable access to the outdoors and the transformative benefits it provides. Through our volunteer-led programs, we strive to empower our members and foster a culture of belonging by providing outdoor skills education to individuals from all backgrounds. Read more…

Climbing to Fall: An Alpine Ambassadors Trip to El Potrero Chico

My first fall is a well-mitigated disaster. Alvero performs his part flawlessly — the disaster is all mine. With my feet at about the height of a bolt and my knees bent, I cling to an awkwardly located crimp at my left shoulder and a side pull to my right, while twenty feet below me, Alvero explains to the group what he is going to do as I fall. Read more…

Walking the Walk: Action Beyond Land Acknowledgement

Mountaineers programs occur on the traditional lands and waters of the Pacific Northwest Indian tribes. As we continue to grow our practice of land acknowledgment, we must also honor the histories, stories, and wisdom of the Indigenous peoples who have been living here since time immemorial. We’re partnering with Sacred Lands Conservancy, an Indigenous-led non-profit with strong ties to the Lummi Nation, to produce a series of educational pieces on the importance of mindful recreation and how we can develop deeper connections to the histories of our natural places. Read more…

Retro Rewind | Naturalists of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Back in 1906, it took newly-minted Mountaineers 21 days to reach the top of Mt. Adams (known by Native peoples as Pahto), horse-travel time included. Popular peaks like Chimney Rock and Eldorado Peak had yet to be summited by Mountaineers members, and so few Washington residents could access the Olympic Mountains that they might as well have been on the other side of the country. The mountains, and the species that lived within them, were mostly a mystery to Western eyes. Read more…

The Priviest Views in Washington

When you're sourcing content for a story about outdoor toilets, your first thought probably isn’t, “I’m going to make my mom so proud.” Well, your mom isn’t a copy editor for this magazine, but my mom is, and when I told her about this article, the first thing she did was groan and say, “Oh Kristina. You aren’t writing about poop again, are you?” Full of unconditional love, she did a quick course correction. “It has been about a year since you wrote about poop, so I guess this makes sense.” Read more…

Top Tips for Shoulder Season Backpacking

I was forty years old when I went on my first backpacking trip. We visited Second Beach in Olympic National Park, and the experience left me hungry for more. I had to go again, first with friends who mentored me, and then solo. I couldn’t get enough. Read more…

Peak Performance | Spice Up Your Shoulder Season Training Routine

Now is the perfect time to beef up your fitness regimen to take advantage of unique seasonal opportunities. Take that exercise class you’ve never had time for or explore a new form of exercise. How about a backpacking trip or a rainy hike? The trails beckon you to enjoy the changing colors, cooler temperatures, and solitude. Pick one or more of these strategies to spice up your exercise routine and stay ready for anything this shoulder season. Read more…

Did You Know? The Fall Equinox

The shift away from summer’s longer, warmer days typically comes with apprehension. Even the snow sport fanatics brace themselves for the oncoming gloom of fall and winter days. But this new season has a lot to offer, especially if we keep our heads up and our eyes toward the sky. Thanks to the fall equinox, there are some neat things to watch out for this month. Read more…