Mazamas

One of the best things about being a Mazama hike leader? You get to decide where we go next.

Our leaders have taken us on silent mindfulness hikes and outings exploring local wildlife, flora and fauna, the meaning behind petroglyphs and more. We snowshoe. We backpack. We occasionally bikepack. And our urban rambles might mean Forest Park one week and a First Thursday art walk or a Wildwood crow tour the next.

We love seeing just how creative our hike leaders can get. And we make sure they have the training and support to lead safe, welcoming adventures along the way.

Interested in adding your own ideas to the Mazama calendar? Hike Leader Training is online Oct. 1, and registration closes Sept. 28. mazamas.org/calendar/all

Come lead us somewhere.

📸Lisa Condon

Some outdoor photos are beautiful. The best ones come with a story.

For our November/December photography issue of the Mazama Bulletin, we want your favorite photo from a Mazama climb, hike, outing or adventure, and we want to know what was happening beyond the frame.

The summit you worked hard for. The alpine sunrise you still think about. The day everything went sideways. The soggy adventure that was objectively terrible and somehow became one of your favorites.

Send us:
📷 A high-res photo, at least 1MB
✍️ A paragraph or two about where, when and why it matters to you
🏔️ Your name as you’d like it credited

Deadline: Monday, Oct. 12.

Dig through your photos and send us one that still takes you somewhere. Your photo and story could be featured in the next Mazama Bulletin.

🔗 Submit at link in bio

📸Katie Weinberg/Canyoning
Kyle Mangione/Mt. Baker
Hannah Snyder/The Wallowas
Justin Colquhoun/Ingalls Peak

September understood the assignment.

We are squeezing a LOT of climbing into these last days of summer. Just this week, Mazama teams are aiming for summits across the Northwest and beyond:

Old Snowy. Trinity Alps. South Broken Jack. South Sister. Mt. Thielsen. Three Fingered Jack. Mt. Washington. Mt. Ellinor. Broken Top.

That’s a pretty spectacular way to send off summer.

And if you’re looking at this list thinking, I want in — start pondering 2027. You must be a Mazama member to climb with us, and membership opens the door to a whole calendar of adventures, from classic Cascade summits to peaks you may not have considered yet.

mazamas.org/join

📸Matthew Haglund/Broken Top

You’ve probably driven one.

A Forest Service road so rutted, washed out or pothole-filled that getting to the trailhead feels like part of the adventure.

The Forest Service already has a multibillion-dollar backlog of road maintenance. And now the federal government is proposing to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, opening roughly 45 million acres of national forest to potential new road construction and other development.

More roads aren’t just more roads. They can mean fragmented wildlife habitat, damaged watersheds, invasive species and more human access into some of our wildest remaining places. Research also shows wildfire ignitions are more concentrated near roads, not in roadless areas.

And Americans have been pretty clear about where they stand.

🌲 More than 625,000 submissions came in during the first round of public input. About 99% opposed rescission.

🌲 A 2026 Pew survey found 76% of likely voters support keeping the Roadless Rule.

🌲 More than 118,000 comments have already been submitted during this latest round, with nearly 99% opposing repeal.

The Roadless Rule has helped keep some places difficult to reach, undeveloped and wild for 25 years. As people who hike, climb, ski, camp and explore our public lands, we know that's not a flaw. It’s the point.

Speak up for roadless forests while you still can. Submit a substantive comment here: www.regulations.gov/document/FS-2025-0001-223869

📸Travis Edwards Allen

Love Mt. Hood? Come give the mountain a little love back.

On Saturday, Sept. 26 — National Public Lands Day — we’re joining Trillium Alpine Guides and Mt. Hood National Forest rangers for a big cleanup around Timberline.

We’ll meet at the Timberline Climbers Lot at 8 a.m. and spend the day picking up what doesn’t belong on the mountain. Gloves on, friends encouraged, weirdest piece of trash earns bragging rights. (Actually, there are prizes for that. 👀)

And the prize stash is pretty sweet. Gear from Arc’teryx Portland and Folkrm, goodies from Mountain Shop, Portland Climbing, Uhuru Mountain Collective and others, plus coffee, bars and electrolytes to keep the cleanup crew moving.

Mostly, though, this one is about taking care of a place that gives us an awful lot. We climb here. We hike here. We ski here. We watch the sun come up from its slopes and spend entire weekends going around it. Here’s a chance to return the favor.

📅 Saturday, Sept. 26
⏰ 8 a.m.–3 p.m.
📍 Timberline Climbers Lot, Mt. Hood
🧤 Bring gloves + bring your people

The event is now on the Mazamas calendar. mazamas.org/activity/instance/15739/

📸Gordon Wilde

And that’s a wrap on Round the Mountain 2026.

Three days. Roughly 40 miles. One lap around Wy’east/Mt. Hood. And just about every kind of September weather along the way.

Rain jackets on. Rain jackets off. Sunglasses on. Sunglasses off. Rainbows appearing when they felt like it. Creek crossings, long miles, big views and three days spent seeing (and barely seeing) the mountain from nearly every angle.

Round the Mountain is one of those Mazama traditions that connects generations of hikers. Year after year, people have spent Labor Day weekend making their way around Hood together — following the Timberline Trail through forests and meadows, across glacial streams and beneath the mountain that has been at the heart of the Mazamas since our beginning.

Congratulations to our 2026 RTM participants. You did the miles, climbed the climbs, crossed the creeks and rolled with whatever the mountain — and the weather — handed you.

And a huge thank you to the volunteer leaders and everyone behind the scenes who made those miles possible. RTM simply doesn’t happen without you.

Already thinking about next Labor Day? So are we. Keep an eye out for Round the Mountain 2027.

📸RTM 2026

And they’re off.

Round the Mountain 2026 begins today. And this year, getting to say that feels especially sweet.

After weeks of wildfire closures, the Timberline Trail reopened just yesterday. And today, our RTM teams are setting out to spend three days making their way around Mt. Hood.

Nearly 40 miles. Alpine meadows and glacial streams. Forests, ridgelines and those stop-you-in-your-tracks views of the mountain from every side.

The Timberline Trail is truly one of the great treasures of the Pacific Northwest, and we're feeling particularly grateful for the chance to share it with this year's participants.

We're also grateful for the firefighters and crews whose work helped make this reopening possible — and mindful that fires are still burning and closures remain elsewhere in the forest.

Have the BEST time out there, RTM crew. Take it all in. We'll see you on the other side of the mountain.

📷 Hannah Snyder/RTM 2025

Congratulations to our newest Wilderness First Responders!

WFRs train for the moments none of us hope to encounter — an injury miles from a trailhead, an illness deep in the backcountry, changing conditions that turn a straightforward trip into something much more complicated.

They learn to assess patients, manage injuries and illness, weigh risk and make decisions about evacuation when professional rescue and hospital care may be hours — or longer —away.

And they put in some serious work to get there: 28 hours of online learning, five full days of hands-on practical training and a final exam.

So yes, congratulations. But also — thank you. Every one of us who spends time in the mountains is a little luckier when someone with these skills happens to be nearby.

Our WFR course is offered in collaboration with Base Medical and meets nationally recognized certification standards.

📸 Alexander Vasarab/WFR Summer 2026/These photos are instructional-only. No actual injuries were sustained.

Join the Mazamas Advanced Rock Committee for a morning of top roping at Ozone Crag, just across the river in Washington.

We’ll have ropes set on a variety of routes, so you can climb, work on your movement, ask questions, pick up a few tips and spend a few hours outside with fellow climbers. AR volunteers handle the anchors and rope setup. You bring your gear, snacks, water and stoke.

Open to BCEP grads (or higher badge level) and climbers with a current belay card from a local gym.

📍 Ozone Crag
📅 Saturday, Oct. 3
⏰ 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
Apply here: mazamas.org/activity/instance/15760/

Newer to climbing outside? Want more mileage on real rock? Curious about technique, gear or anchors? This is a pretty great place to spend your morning!

📷 Lindsay Higa