The Mountaineers. The year 1959 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Mountaineers’ Climbing Course. Thousands of the course’s graduates have trod the summits of nearly all the Cascade peaks and have climbed many other mountains throughout the world. This year The Mountaineers gave basic and intermediate instruction to 400 students in Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett. In the Seattle course alone, about 65 persons served as lecturers, field trip leaders, and experienced climb leaders for the 14 lecture and examination evenings, 10 field trips, 41 experience climbs, and five intermediate climbs. An additional 56 students took the Mountain Hiking Course designed for those people who go into the mountains but who do not use roped climbing technique.

In addition to regular course climbs there were 39 "one-day roped climbs” and "viewfinder climbs” (ropes not required) with a total attendance of 760. Another 500 people participated in 23 snowshoe trips and ski tours. There were also hundreds of informal non-scheduled climbs by many of the club’s 3900 members. The Mountaineers’ summer outing in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and the Campcrafter outing in central Oregon afforded further opportunities for bagging peaks.

Our new climbing course textbook, Mountaineering, should be available by April 1960. This 460-page book, though primarily a text for the climbing course student, will also be a valuable reference book for the experienced climber. It will contain 92 full pages of photographs and line drawings.

The climbing season was unfortunately marred by accidents which involved Mountaineers on Mount St. Helens and Mount Johannesberg. On the latter a single rock triggered a very bad rock avalanche. A large rock from this debris struck and killed a Mountaineer.

Victor Josendal, Chairman, Outdoor Division