How did you get into Mountaineering?

[Skimo95]

I never really considered CO 14er hiking, mountaineering. I would love to get into mountaineering one day, but am afraid it’s not ideal for my income class. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and get into some real training/traveling one day!

[cottonmountaineering]

I never really considered CO 14er hiking, mountaineering. I would love to get into mountaineering one day, but am afraid it’s not ideal for my income class. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and get into some real training/traveling one day!

what income class is that? some of the most famous mountaineers were essentially dirtbags

[Scott P]

what income class is that? some of the most famous mountaineers were essentially dirtbags

Yes. One of the reasons I started so early is because my dad used to say "it's easier to hitchhike when you have a little kid with you".

We also used to knock on strangers' doors and ask them if we could sleep on their lawn. I didn't do that with my kids, but my dad definitely did with us.

When we did have a car (AMC Pacer) the whole trip, and if we only had 3 or fewer people we would sleep in the Pacer. In winter, you just had to wait until the windows were frosted and you could park anywhere. I still remember shivering on many nights though.

As far as things like harnesses go, those were home-made and made out of webbing, which isn't that expensive. It used to be 15 cents a foot.

My first out of the country mountaineering trip was the Mexican Volcanoes (and a few in Guatemala too) and I went alone at age 18 after saving money from joining the military on my 17th birthday. I budgeted $700 for the trip, of which $425 was airfare.

https://www.summitpost.org/mexico-s-vol ... -18/169567

I wrote in my old trip report:

"I borrowed my dad’s old wooden handle ice axe, in which he gave me a quick lesson [though I had used it previoysly], his old and very worn crampons, and bought a stove. Clothing was hiking boots, a few pairs of Levis, a pair of army surplus wool pants, some very old ankle high gaiters, 2 pairs of wool socks, a winter jacket, a poncho, sunglasses, underwear, and a few t-shirts. That was all I had that I could take on hiking and climbing trips at the time. I also had a tent and sleeping bag I got in 1986 for Christmas one year".

I had to hitchhike on trucks at times since I couldn't always afford the bus fare. When I did use the bus, I would take the night bus so I wouldn't have to spring for a hotel room. I slept in my tent much of the time, including on the beaches. My only food on the mountains was bread and cornflakes. I never once went out to eat on that trip, but did get tamales and a few sandwiches at the bus stops.

Back then you didn't need a passport to go to and from Mexico either and no one ask for one when i crossed into Guatemala on foot after hitchhiking on trucks from Mexico to that border.

That was when I was 18 though. I don't travel quite that spartan now days.

[Boggy B]

I never really considered CO 14er hiking, mountaineering.

Well, getting shortroped by a guide and/or following an established bootpack to the top of whatever glaciated summit isn't really mountaineering in my view. Not to diminish that experience which is certainly incredible regardless of style, but it doesn't align with the ethos of mountaineering or its red-headed stepchild alpinism.

"14er hiking" aside, you can do mountaineering in CO, and most of what little "real" mountaineering I've done has happened here despite AK, WA, CA, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, etc.
Although the continental snowpack does make it hard to do much climbing in the alpine between November and May that doesn't (reliably) involve unmitigable objective hazard, snow and ice aren't required for mountaineering.
Pretty much all the summer FAs of technical summits in CO were mountaineering, and while beta-drenched ascents of trade routes cleaned by 50-100 years of traffic are arguably not so, there's still plenty of adventure to be had in your own backyard.

[XterraRob]

To get pictures that scare my mom and impress all my friends back in Florida.

This.

[cougar]

I was also poor in my youth, and we didn't have mountains around. The only thing close was the local landfill, contender for state highpoint. I made a summit attempt once,, through soft, unstable ground, like walking through a sand dune or snow, but turned back a couple hundred feet from the summit, as I couldn't handle the smell anymore.

An ex girlfriend's hardship story: "sometimes we were so poor, we had to eat at Denny's".

[TomPierce]

Did a few hikes with my Dad in the 60's when we lived in Alaska, I was just a little kid but remember hiking quietly to avoid spooking moose. Mom got me a book for Christmas, published in '69 by Curtis Casewit, about hiking and climbing, I devoured that book. Went to a junior high lecture about climbing in about 1970 by acolytes of Layton Kor, lived in Colorado Springs then and did hikes with the Boy Scouts. Later lived in New Mexico during high school, that's when I really started backpacking and scrambling. I mark the start of my "career" on a 1974 snowy fall attempt of Santa Fe Baldy, solo in jeans up to my knees in snow. Aborted when the sun went down, a wise decision, a chilly night in my tube tent that night with a poorly functioning Gerry stove in the morning. Good times. During college a lot of backpacking and scrambling, was bit by the technical climbing bug in '87, became a fanatical rock climber for years after. I became a jack-of-all trades climber, loved rock climbing, alpine, at one point OK at leading ice, dabbled in aid climbing, some easy altitude stuff in South America, a Denali attempt (which cured me of any expedition interests... ), winter ascents, etc etc.

Still at it, I get out on rock frequently in 3 seasons, do the occasional winter ascent of 13/14ers. But my interests have evolved. I still love tech climbing, but also really love the wild places; no trails, no or limited beta, obscure. Just me.

-Tom

[susanjoypaul]

I was also poor in my youth, and we didn't have mountains around. The only thing close was the local landfill, contender for state highpoint. I made a summit attempt once,, through soft, unstable ground, like walking through a sand dune or snow, but turned back a couple hundred feet from the summit, as I couldn't handle the smell anymore.]

Same here - poor and no mountains around when I was a kid. I started doing peaks in my forties when I had the time, lived in a place with mountains (here), and could afford a backpack and boots.

This cracked me up:

An ex girlfriend's hardship story: "sometimes we were so poor, we had to eat at Denny's".

A friend was once lamenting her poor upbringing: "We were so poor, we didn't get to go to Disneyland every year like the other kids."

Disneyland? We didn't have a car! We didn't have beds, or hot water! When the pipes froze in winter, we didn't have freaking water at all! Hahahahaha. I remember being invited to a friend's house for dinner and how impressed I was because they had butter on the table, and we could eat as much of it as we wanted. I guess "poor" means different things to different people.

Denny's. Jeez. That would have been a treat.

To answer the question: some folks at work were hiking up Pikes Peak and they asked if I wanted to come along.

[Istoodupthere]

Growing up in Michigan, I can remember driving with my parents to Florida to visit my grandparents. I thought the mountain you drove over on I-75 on the TN/KY border was the coolest thing ever. Actually I just drove over it again around 2pm yesterday and the elevation is about 2000’ ha.

About 20 years ago I moved to SW Virginia for work where I was close to the Blue Ridge mountains and Appalachian Trail. For the next 6 years I lived around the Appalachians (including 5 miles from Grandfather Mountain in NC) so I was able to spend a lot of time in the mountains. During the slow summer period I also started hiking the state high points nearby.

I moved back to Michigan about 11 years ago, again for work. I basically have to live in a rural town with no recreational opportunities. So I made the decision then that as long as I was here, I would leave this shat hole every opportunity I could and climb mountains. I’ve summited every 6k peak in the east so most of my time is now spent in CO.

When I did Elbert a number of years ago, I didn’t even know that climbing 14ers was a thing. I’m momentarily stuck on 46 state highpoints so I’ve been doing the 14ers. I started doing some centennials a few years ago, and I realized that I just love hiking/climbing everything. So now I just drive around the US summiting every cool mountain I can

[supranihilest]

Growing up I did a lot of camping with my dad. We were lazy campers and mostly slept in the back of his Ford Ranger. He pushed me into the Boy Scouts when I got old enough (never did Cub Scouts) where I rock climbed at Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin. Though this only happened a handful of times it made a lasting impression on me. In college I turned into the usual slack-ass stoner and low-key alcoholic that's common at that age, but after I got a real job and left school I felt like I needed more to do. I was lifting a lot of weights at the time and eventually started going to the local climbing gym (Boulders in Madison, Wisconsin) with some coworkers who climbed. I got really into it and spent a couple of years climbing at Devil's Lake and other crags around southern Wisconsin.

I made a solo trip to Colorado and hiked Pikes for the Pikes Peak Challenge (my cousin has a brain injury and my family is heavily involved with the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado) and attempted Longs, which I failed miserably. I believe that was the summer of 2014. From then on Wisconsin just seemed so small.

A few months later my then hairdresser introduced me to another of her clients, a friend named Kris. Kris has since passed on but we quickly became great friends and within a month of meeting each other traveled down to Potrero Chico in Mexico for the holidays, where we spent four weeks together climbing everything we could. Upon getting back home I told my then supervisor that I was moving to Colorado and they would have to let me work remotely or I would quit. She was surprisingly cool with my ultimatum and I moved here in the summer of 2015. I still have the same job too! Within a week of arriving I returned to Longs and successfully summitted. The rest is history.

[dr_j]

I'm a glorified hiker, not a mountaineer. The 14ers are mostly hikes, with a few of them being somewhat more technical scrambles. But for the most part, anybody can do them, with a healthy dose of persistence and tempered expectations, it's 90 % mental, 10 % physical.

How did I get into this kind of stuff? I've always enjoyed hiking, and I like seeing the earth from an elevated position, mostly mountaintops and ridges. I can't say that there was any particular thing that set off a lightbulb in my head. As for mountaineering, that's a whole different story, my only technical peaks have been two of the Cascade big boys, Hood and Rainier, where you do need some practice with basic skills like using crampons and some idea of how to use an ice axe. While I'd like to try some other glaciated peaks in the future, let's see how this year goes and whether my physical condition allows me to do this kind of stuff. I don't foresee too many more years ahead of me where I can still hike like I used to.

[pvnisher]

Grew up in Colorado, mom was in a hiking club doing 14ers all the time. So naturally it was super lame for me.

Did boy scouts, got into a sweet group with adventurous leaders taking us ice climbing, multi day spelunking, week long bike packs, really crazy stuff now that I think about it.

Eventually got out to Seattle and saw Rainier up close and was like, holy F, this is nothing like Colorado. I really wanted that challenge, both in fitness and gear and technique.

Then I moved to Europe and saw the Alps and was like, holy F, this is nothing like America.
Learned to rock climb in order to get up mountains I wanted to get up (as opposed to climbing for it's own sake). Again, gotta say I love a physical challenge that involves fitness, gear, and technique!

Living away from the mountains now sucks, and I wish I could be in a middle aged hiking group like my mom was. Full circle.