Welcome to the CSMC!

The Canadian Scrambling and Mountaineering Company (not-for-profit) was born in 2017 from the Calgary Scrambling and Mountaineering Club which was established in 2008.

Over the years, we have grown from a small, passionate scrambling club into a group of hundreds of like-minded members who push it further into the alpine on rock, host weekend winter campouts and explore night ice climbing, enjoy the Rockies cold smoke and get on the glaciers backcountry sking, run local and wild rivers on packrafts, and fine tune their balance on slacklines and highlines. 

Although club members have led unsanctioned climbing and ski trips to the deserts and volcanoes of the USA, and rivers of Patagonia, and attempted and climbed some of the highest peaks in North and South America, our playground is the vast and wild Rocky Mountains around Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Come join us!

STEP 1 – CSMC Membership

In order to join a CSMC event, you need to pay for an annual CSMC membership.

STEP 2 – Waiver

In order to join a CSMC event, you need to have signed our waiver. This is only needed once per year.

STEP 3 – Activities and Events

We use Meetup to plan group trips.

*NOTE: that you do NOT have to pay for an extra Meetup membership (Meetup marketing will try to push it on you, but just decline).

Check out our newsletter to see what we've done in the past. 

All Meetup events will say “full" – that's just so trip leaders can review membership status and waivers first. 

Go ahead and sign up even if it says full, and once reviewed you'll be moved to the going list.

STEP 4 – Become a Trip Leader

Once you've joined the CSMC for a few trips and are having fun learning mountain skills and meeting other like-minded people consider giving back by becoming a volunteer CSMC Trip Leader.

Talk to any existing Board Member or Trip Leader to learn more.

The Vertical 

CSMC's newsletter.

• • • Download CSMC The Vertical – FallWinter 2025
    • Download CSMC The Vertical – FallWinter 2024
    • Download CSMC The Vertical – SpringSummer 2024

Annual CSMC Membership

To join our events you need to be a CSMC member.

*NOTE: You do NOT need to pay Meetup anything to join our club. CSMC membership is separate to Meetup!

We manage CSMC events using Meetup.com but collect annual CSMC membership fees via Email Interac.

To Buy or Renew Annual CSMC Membership

1. 1. First, go to Meetup.com and create a user profile.
   2. Then, go to the CSMC Meetup page and become a member of our group.
   3. After that, return here to pay your annual member dues via Email Interac using instructions below. When you send us your membership fee please include your Meetup user profile name.

CSMC Annual Membership Dues

• • • Single $40.00
    • Couple $60.00
    • Family $80.00
    • Drop-in $17.00

Send your Annual Membership amount by Email Interac to csmc.now@gmail.com

Include your full name, Meetup profile name, and indicate it's for membership. Couples and Family memberships put all names in the Email Interac message.

*NOTE: Membership is for 12 months from payment

If you have any questions on membership administration, such as payment, expiry dates, etc., please contact us.

Waiver

To join our events you need to sign our online waiver.

This reduces risk to the club and members.

Upcoming Activities and Events

We use Meetup to host our activities and events. 

Past Activities and Events

CSMC has offered thousands of trips and practice sessions over the past 2 decades. 

The following is a sample of some of the events:

• • Afterwork rock climbing
  • Urban bouldering
  • Indoor gym climbing nights
  • Climb Kane peaks afterwork
  • Climb a 11,000er
  • Mount Wilson alpine rock
  • Club trip to the Bugaboos 2015-2022
  • Weekend rock climbing at Skaha (including famous caving incident!)
  • Club ice climbing festivals
  • Club night ice climbing
  • Backcountry skiing at Rogers Pass
  • Backcountry skiing at Kootenay Pass
  • Backcountry skiing on the Columbia Icefields
  • Ski Wapta in a day
  • Ski Bonney Traverse
  • Ski Bonnington Traverse
  • Climb and ski Pigeon Spire in a day
  • Ski and climb Mt Columbia in a day
  • Couloir skiing
  • Intro to slacklining and highlining
  • Avalanche rescue practice
  • Glacier crevasse practice
  • Rock rescue practice
  • Packrafting first rapids at Harvey Passage
  • Paddle the Milk River
  • Hike and Packraft the Donjek in Kluane NP
  • Hike and Packraft the Jasper NP Boundary
  • Packraft the Nahanni
  • Swiftwater rescue
  • Movie nights and pub nights (including bike and brew)
  • Annual AGM

And various “non-sanctioned" club trips outside of Canada (that aren't official trips and are not covered by our waiver):

• • Weekend rock climbing at Stone Hill, MT
  • Climb Pico Orizaba, Mexico
  • Climb Denali
  • Climb Aconcagua
  • Climb the US State Highpoints
  • Packraft Patagonia
  • Climb Red Rocks and Joshua Tree
  • Ski Mt Rainier, Mt Hood, Mt Baker, Mt Shasta…

Become a Trip Leader

The magic of the CSMC is that our members give back to the mountain community.

We have been built on past presidents, board members, trip leaders, and participants sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience to others in the club.

If this is you – thank you!

If you've benefited from this, consider giving back to the community.

Become a trip leader.

Offer a training session.

Show someone your passion for the outdoors.

Even if you are a specialist in one area of what the club does, your talents are valuable to new members and existing members alike.

Canadian Scrambling and Mountaineering Company

The Canadian Scrambling and Mountaineering Company (not-for-profit) was born in 2017 from the Calgary Scrambling and Mountaineering Club which was established in 2008.

Over the years, we have grown from a small, passionate scrambling club into a group of hundreds of like-minded members who push it further into the alpine on rock, host weekend winter campouts and explore night ice climbing, enjoy the Rockies cold smoke and get on the glaciers backcountry sking, run local and wild rivers on packrafts, and fine tune their balance on slacklines and highlines. 

Although club members have led unsanctioned climbing and ski trips to the deserts and volcanoes of the USA, and rivers of Patagonia, and attempted and climbed some of the highest peaks in North and South America, our playground is the vast and wild Rocky Mountains around Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

We are passionate about playing in the mountains, enjoy the benefits they offer and help others experience the same.

So, if you are new to this world of vertical adventure, an experienced mountaineer willing to share your experience or just looking for like minded individuals to play with, then please come in, make yourself comfortable and start spending time with some of the finest people on the planet!

Download the latest CSMC 2026-04-15 Meeting Minutes 

CSMC Board 

CSMC Trip Leaders

What Are Members Say

Resources

A few resources for exploring the mountains.

Weather and Conditions

• Avalanche Canada – Forecast
• Mountain Conditions Reports [MCR]
• Meteoblue – multi model weather site
• SpotWX
• Mountain-Forecast
• Environment Canada
• Parks Canada Mountain Safety – Updates on Facebook

Avalanche Safety

• TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR STAYING ALIVE IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN by Bruce Tremper

Snow Safety

• Snow Skills Training – Intro
• Snow Skills Training – Advanced

Instructional Videos

• Avalanche Canada – Know Before You Go
• Avalanche Canada – Bulletin Tutorial
• Avalanche Canada – Throttle Decision series Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
• Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) – videos
• ACMG – Top Rope Belaying
• ACMG – Single Rappel
• ACMG – Avalanche Safety for Ice Climbers
• CSMC – Crevasse Rescue CDN Drop Loop 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Trip Reports and GPX Routes

• Explor8ion – personal site with scrambling trip reports and GPX
• Bob Spirko – personal site with scrambling trip reports and GPX
• Peakery – a peak bagging social media site
• Backcountry Ski Canada – info on ski routes

Courses

• Weather (PDF)

Contact Us

The Canadian Scrambling and Mountaineering Company (not-for-profit) is located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

info@mycsmc.ca