NOTE: The Mountaineers' List has not been updated since 2006, about the time the Club's Leader Standards Policy went into effect. The List served a purpose during the 1970s and 1980s when the SPS was experiencing substantial expansion and outings leaders were not familiar with the capabilities of all the new members. Since then the membership has stabilized and many of those new members have gone on to become mountaineering outings leaders themselves, having demonstrated about the same capabilities as those on the Mountaineers' List. And around 2006, new National policies required additional participant screening and approval, which somewhat eliminated the need for the List. Due to all the above, the List is currently out-of-date. The text below has been left in place for historical reasons but the List of names has been removed as it no longer serves a purpose.

Historical Description

The Mountaineer designation should do two things: it should provide to a trip leader an indication of a prospective participant's training and basic capability, and it should place upon that individual the responsibility to make the further judgments relative to the climber's own ability to participate in a particular trip at a particular time.

Criteria for inclusion of the name of a member on the Mountaineers' List are generally based on the climber's mountaineering knowledge, the climber's judgment, and the training the climber has received and the climber's demonstrated competence. They, of course, can provide no indicator of a person's physical or mental capability at any given time. Hopefully, any qualified mountaineer should be able to discuss knowledgeably with the leader the demands of a planned trip and then decide whether the climber feels capable of participating.

Inclusion of a member's name on the Mountaineers' List should indicate to a trip leader that the person is basically capable in the mountains. Such knowledge may be of real help to a leader in making decisions as situations develop which affect the conduct of the trip. Mountaineers, for instance, ought to be more capable of sharing the responsibilities of leadership should some split of the group be required or of returning safely to a road head without leadership if that might be necessary.

Inclusion on the Mountaineers' List is really only an indication that the individual is knowledgeable enough to judge for himself or herself whether he or she is able to participate in any particular outing, not that in fact the climber is so able. One's physical condition is certainly a function of time and circumstances. Listing as a Mountaineer will not assure that one is always able to undertake any hike offered, but should assure that the climber is able and willing to assess his or her own limits. 

NOTE: The List of names has been deleted. .....The level (O/I/M/E) of a chapter Outing Leader may provide some indication of a climber's past experience.