Madness and Seattle Parks Department’s 02 Team Up on Mount Rainier!

Cyn­thia Lin­coln photo

The Out­door Oppor­tu­ni­ties (02) Pro­gram, run by Seat­tle Parks and Recre­ation, is “…an out­door expe­di­tion lev­el pro­gram designed to expose mul­ti-eth­nic teens to envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion, urban con­ser­va­tion, and stew­ard­ship, while cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment for com­mu­ni­ty lead­er­ship and empowerment.” 

The free pro­gram is open to Seat­tle youth between the ages of 15 and 19, and every month it pro­vides stu­dents with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in two overnight excur­sions, envi­ron­men­tal ser­vice learn­ing projects, and week­ly work­shops. What bet­ter orga­ni­za­tion to team up with Moun­tain Mad­ness? In the spir­it of O2’s direc­tive, Moun­tain Mad­ness recent­ly oper­at­ed this trip as a not-for-prof­it out­ing for a group of teens.

Ear­li­er in May, Moun­tain Mad­ness guides Jason Bro­man and Chris Petry took a group of stu­dents to Mount Rainier, where they spent a day prac­tic­ing their snow skills, such as ice axe arrest, build­ing snow anchors. O2 instruc­tor Cyn­thia Lin­coln said “…the stu­dents had such an awe­some time learn­ing about snow anchors and knots! I thought it was epic to see them try­ing to fig­ure out ways that they could make alter­na­tive anchors — the Nal­gene did bet­ter than I thought! I know that the stu­dents real­ly enjoyed the instruc­tion and instruc­tors who were a foun­tain of use­ful and inter­est­ing knowledge.”

Moun­tain Mad­ness guide Jason Bro­man is still smil­ing about the expe­ri­ence. ​“It was such an hon­or to share our pas­sion for the alpine with a new gen­er­a­tion!” he said. ​“And the stu­dents were such good sports about the snowy weather.”