The Mountaineers

Publication Year: 1999.

The Mountaineers. The Seattle Mountaineers climbing program, under the leadership of Barbara McCann, continued with expansion of its traditional alpine program by again offering courses and seminars in sport climbing, water ice climbing and other advanced climbing experiences. The traditional alpine courses remain as popular as ever, with a small number of people being turned away each year owing to the high level of interest in these programs. The Advanced Climbing Experiences (ACE) program, which was initiated during the 1995-’96 climbing season, continued to attract increasing interest. During 1997-’98 it offered a number of activities for more experienced Mountaineers. Most popular of these was an extensive series of Water Ice seminars, which included trips to Ouray, Colorado, and Banff, Alberta. Other ACE seminars addressed Aid Climbing, High-Altitude Travel, Denali Expedition Planning, and Leadership. Besides climbs in Washington’s Cascades and Olympics, various destinations and climbs offered to club members included Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows, Iztaccihuatl (Mexico), Mount Shasta, Gannett Peak and the Grand Teton, and Icefields Parkway in Banff (Athabasca and Andromeda).

On an administrative level, climbers Steve Firebaugh and Peter Clitherow developed a web page for the club’s climbing programs (www.eskimo.com/~pc22). The Northwest Environmental Issues Course is a popular class offered annually. It features a program of lectures and field instruction designed to empower participants to take actions that will protect the natural resources of the Northwest by expanding their awareness and knowledge of regional environmental issues. Students examined aspects of often conflicting interest—including population, lifestyle, forests, water, salmon, growth management, energy and transportation—through lectures by nationally recognized speakers and local environmental experts as well as group discussion and activities. Field trips were offered to engage the class actively in the issues they studied. Also, an ongoing theme of activism focused on ways to influence legislation, write persuasive letters, and determine the most effective forums to shape public policy.

New titles of note for Mountaineers Books were On Belay! The Life of Legendary Mountaineer Paul Petzholdt, Joe Simpson’s Dark Shadows Falling, Back Country Snowboarding (Dudes!), the full-color l00 Classic Hikes in Washington and the second editionof GPS Made Easy. Mountaineers Books received three international awards. Eric Shipton: Everest and Beyond by Peter Steele won the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. Recognition at the Banff Mountain Books Festival included Postcards from the Ledge, which won the mountain literature category, and Charles Houston’s Going Higher: Oxygen, Man and Mountains, which won the mountain exposition category.

Donna Price, Trustee