Emergencies

The Mountaineers’ Emergency Plan

The Mountaineers Scramble Trips are planned with safety as the foremost concern, however accidents do happen so please be sure to have an emergency contact person assigned to your Mountaineers’ profile.

Occasionally a scramble trip may be very late getting home or may be forced to spend an unplanned overnight in the mountains and not return until the following day – do not promise friends and loved ones that you will be home by a certain time and do not commit to something the same evening, following a trip.

On rare occasions, things go wrong in the backcountry and The Mountaineers may call your emergency contact person to pass along important updates about your safety and location .

The Mountaineers has an Emergency Line available 24/7 for calling and reporting overdue Mountaineers’ trips – your emergency contact person should use this number: (206) 521-6030 to prevent multiple people from calling 911 about the same incident.

Once again, for an overdue trip with The Mountaineers, your emergency contact should call The Mountaineers Emergency Line first: (206) 521-6030 and not 911 directly

The Mountaineers Emergency Line will coordinate action with 911 and rescue authorities.

Your First Steps

Update your emergency contact person on the website – it should not be a person you scramble with.

When going on scrambles with The Mountaineers let your emergency contact person know your latest return time which is always noon the day after your scramble. For example, if you're going on a Saturday scramble then tell them to call the Mountaineers Emergency Line if you're not back by Sunday at noon.

It is your responsibility to educate your emergency contact person of this procedure and make sure they know not to call 911 – give them the cutout below, or send them an email.

If you're on a trip and there's a safety incident then you should call 911 – if your cell phone shows that it has no reception, still call 911 since all cell phones will send a boosted signal if it's 911 increasing your chance of reaching them. Do not call The Mountaineers Emergency Line in this case.

After your scramble let your emergency contact person know you've returned safely.

Your Emergency Contact's Steps

If you're not back by noon the day after your Mountaineers Scramble then your emergency contact person should call the Mountaineers Emergency Line, open 24/7, at 206–521–6030. They should never call 911 directly.

The Mountaineers Emergency Line phone number can also be found on The Mountaineers website: mountaineers.org > "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page.