When did you first start climbing Mountains?

[TomPierce]

I don't count just hiking around Alaska as a kid, nor driving to the top of Pikes, so I guess my first above treeline climb was an October '74 climb up Santa Fe Baldy down in New Mexico. Gerry stove, tube tents, foot of snow on the summit ridge. High adventure!

-Tom

[TravelingMatt]

When did you first start climbing mountains? Not hiking, but actual mountains, that you would today consider calling "mountaineering."

I guess never

[DavidEStaunton]

Like many I would presume, my Dad took me up Pike's Peak for my 13th birthday. Via Barr Trail.
Very hard 2 days. But I was hooked. I have attempted to climb at least one mountain every
year since then, usually with my Dad, although I have recently gained my driver's license, and
as have had several adventures on my own.
I am very grateful to my Dad for taking me up Pike's Peak, and instilling in me the
unquenchable desire to get on top of something. Poor guy, his knees don't like climbing.
Don't take your child up Pike's Peak for their first summit via Barr Trail.

[greenonion]

Summer of 77 or 78 (14 or 15). Some other dad vacationing in Lake City asked a couple of us if we were interested in climbing Uncomphagre. Uncomwhat?? So we did. Fell in love with the peaks from thereon. Hiked Unc 5 times before realizing there were like 50+ more in CO. So now I have a bunch more and still love it at 54!

[DeTour]

Longs Peak as a 49 YO flatlander in 2007. I was expecting it to be a one-time adventure then. It instead became an annual obsession.

[MtnLover]

Did my first 14er at the age of 50 just a few years ago. I was a couch potato for most of my 30s and 40s so this was a huge accomplishment for me.

[jbealer]

I have been an outdoors gal since i was a kid, trail hiking with my parents scoping out hunting spots for my dad back in PA, no big mountains out there just wood hikes for us. did a ton of trails visiting my aunt in CO from the mid 90's to early 2000's, no summits that i can remember, just passes. moved here in 2004 and stood on top of my first 13ers flora and eva in the late summer of 2009, did my first 14er, Sherman in 2010. Last week i hit 100 & 101 summits above 13k with repeats and unranked. Tried my first glacier in June, Rainier, got stormed off, no summit. looking to get a 7 summit next march and finish up the 14ers by the end of 2020.
I love hiking and summiting peaks.

[AlexeyD]

Hmm. Guess it depends. First time in the mountains would have been in the 1980s in the North Caucasus with my parents, as a really young child. First time actually getting to the top of a mountain: somewhere in the White Mountains, NH, early 90s (age 7 or 8 ).

[jbker54]

Moraine Park visitor center in RMNP had a mountain climbing display in the '50s and '60s. Hob nailed boots, steel carabiners, pitons and gold line rope, it all made a big impression on an 8 year old visiting from Iowa. And that view out the picture window in front of Longs Peak and the Front range was enough to take your breath away. My Dad bought me a copy of Paul Nesbit's "Longs Peak, its story and a climbing Guide" and I still prize that page worn edition I have read countless times. My parents wouldn't let me climb Longs so I had to settle for Emerald Mountain that stood above Glacier Basin campground. Had to wait 5 years before I got permission to climb Longs, and the mountain bug has never left me.

[djkest]

Not sure exactly when. My parents joined CMC for a while when I was a kid. They did hikes with CMC. I don't think we ever climbed to the summit of mountains, but did plenty of hiking around them.
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But when did I start climbing mountains in earnest? That would be 2009. I used them as motivation to lose weight and get in shape. I was 272 lbs when I climbed Longs Peak. I haven't been that heavy since.
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First one I can say for sure was Twin Sisters, some time when I was a teenager (Mid 90s). I've been on the top 2 or 3 times, but I don't think I've ever been to both sisters.
Climbed Horsetooth rock several times in the mid 2000s... if that counts
I climbed Signal Mountain in 2008. Longs Peak in 2009 (1st 14er, yay). My "summit stats" are pretty pedestrian compared to a lot of folks that frequent these parts.

[AndrewS]

For me, the answer to this question pushed right as I progressed in the sport.

2004-First 14ers, up to Class 3.
2006-First mountaineering route. Kelso Ridge in Winter.
2011-First Class 5 route on a 14er. Mount Evans 2nd Apron.
2012-First route I truly consider mountaineering was the North Face of Longs in winter.
201?-The next evolution will be the day I climb the Notch Couloir.

[Eli Boardman]

Green Mountain above Boulder was my first at age 8 (2008). I consider it a climb since we bushwhacked straight up the front (no trail-my idea) and I was pretty young and it seemed like a huge mountain. Then:

First 11er: 2011
First 12er and first 13er: summer 2015
First 14er: winter 2015
First glaciated peak: Gannett 2016
First class 5 peak: Grand Teton summer 2017
First 5000-meter peaks: Izta and Orizaba winter 2017