Connect with your local branch and find the committee leaders for your favorite outdoor activity near you. The Mountaineers also has Program Centers in Seattle and Tacoma, and many historic Outdoor Centers located throughout Western Washington. Plan your next event or overnight excursion with us.
Our mission is driven and executed by over 2,000 highly skilled volunteers serving our community of 12,500 members. Each year, we teach hundreds of courses to help ensure our members can get outside safely and responsibly. These courses cover a wide range of outdoors skills including but not limited to hiking, kayaking, sailing, climbing, avalanche safety and much more! We lead over 2,000 trips a year, contribute thousands of hours to regional stewardship and conservation advocacy efforts, and publish guide books, instructional resources, adventure writing, and conservation stories. All of this work happens through our two program centers, five outdoor centers, seven branches, and publishing division.
Our outdoor centers are designed to support our courses and activities throughout Washington State. You can book a rental space or attend a program at our Program Centers in Seattle and Tacoma, or hit the slopes for an overnight excursion at one of our mountain cabins near Snoqualmie, Stevens Pass, and Mt. Baker.
The Mountaineers has Program Centers located in both Seattle and Tacoma. The centers serve as hubs for Mountaineers sponsored courses, activities, and public events, and are available to rent to host community and social events.
Our bookstore in our Seattle Program Center has the best selection of outdoor titles you could ever imagine. We're normally open M, Tu, Th, Fr 9am-5pm and W 9am-7pm. Visit our bookstore page for other dates with extended hours and closures. Stop by and experience an outdoor book selection with no rival!
The Mountaineers has Outdoors Centers throughout Western Washington. Our lodges, cabins, and campuses support courses by offering overnight accommodations for students, and are ski and weekend getaway destinations. The Kitsap Forest Theater is a historic outdoor theater showcasing two musical productions a year which are open to the public and a family favorite.
At first glance, The Mountaineers can seem like a complex group. However, we're very similar to a school with multiple campuses. Each campus - or in our case "branch" - has it's own set of departments responsible for teaching different curriculum like math or history, and those departments work together to make sure the curriculum is the same across the different campuses.
In our case, each branch consists of committees built around specific activities like kayaking, snowshoeing, or climbing. A committee is a group of volunteers who schedules and manages our trips, programs, and courses related to their areas of interest and expertise. Each branch has its own set of committees who are responsible for curriculum at the branch level. The committee members work together through "activity summits" to assure consistency across the club. For example the Seattle Sea Kayaking committee works with Tacoma, Olympia and Everett Sea Kayking leaders to ensure similar material is covered in the Basic Sea Kayaking course which is the pre-requisite to joining many of our sea kayak outings.
Each committee maintains their own roster of leaders, instructors, and administrators. If you have a question or suggestion about activities, or are interested in volunteering or leading activities, please contact the committee chair at your branch. You will find the committee listings by clicking on the "Committee" link for each branch (above or at the left). There's also more information about volunteering on our Volunteer page.
If you serve on one of our committees, visit our Leader Resources page to find important information about listing courses and to access to an archive of helpful documents. The committees on which you serve are also listed on your My Profile page. You can also use your committee page to store important course information and expertise relevant to your specific passion.