School Project

[ZacharyMattingley]

Hi everyone!
I'm a high school student working on a research paper about the recent rise in hiking popularity and I'd love your help! For a part of this project I am gathering personal insight from real hikers in order to understand what got them into hiking and how things likes social media, commercialization, and even the pandemic may have influenced that. If you're willing, I'd really appreciate it if you could briefly share:
What inspired you to start hiking?
Do you hike regularly and why?
Have you noticed any changes in the hiking community over the past few years?
Your responses will help me bring more voice into my project from the actual community I'm writing about. Thank you for your time!

[Jay521]

I'll bite...

And - just for some overview, I turn 77 in a few weeks and have had the hiking bug since I was 14 or so.

What got me into hiking?: In a word - make that two words - Boy Scouts. Going to Camp Tahosa (above Ward), one of the first merit badges I got was the Hiking merit badge. That was probably around 1961-1962. I found I loved it. First mountain was Audubon which isn't all that far from Tahosa and we did it as a Scout hike. We kids thought we had just climbed Everest. I can recall how my chest was swelling up after making the summit.

Regularity?: I go once a week year round. Since I retired, that day has become Tuesday for a number of reasons. In a way, mountains are my church. I always come back from a hike or climb feeling peaceful. And tired <smile> And sore <smile>. But when I miss my weekly outing, I find I am tense and I count the days until I can go again. In some ways, I think the mountains are a real addiction for me and I honestly do worry some about how I will cope when I can't do it anymore.

Changes?: Yeah - for sure... In the 60 years I've been hiking and climbing, the only thing that hasn't changed is the mountains. Everything else has - and not always for the better. On the good side (IMHO) Gear is better and people are healthier. On the "I'm not sure is good or not" side, Technology makes route finding easier which is - again IMHO - a double edged sword. It can make it too "easy" to find your way. Navigating by experience, reading maps, using a compass, trusting your gut, reading terrain, etc., are important talents to have and it's lost when people use their Iphone and/or Garmin to lead them up and down. There are specific route descriptions and step by step instructions on how to "conquer the mountain?", but does that really make it better? I think not.

The other thing that has changed that I personally don't like is just how many people are hiking and climbing these days. And I get it - everyone has a right. But when I was in my 20's, you could actually be alone on Bierstadt in the summer. Change is inevitable, I guess... But not always good.

Social media?; I have a love/hate/hate/hate relationship with it. Yeah - it's good, I guess... But it seems to take the essence out of hiking. If you can see all the pictures and videos, where's the discovery?

All this said by an old man - so take it for what it's worth. Probably not much. And feel free to PM me if you want/need any amplification.

Good luck with your research paper. I hope you will share it with us when you are done.


Jay

[Rivergassen]

Hey, thanks for doing research. Hopefully I’m responding before your project is due.

What inspired you to start hiking?

My family, I started hiking with my Uncle and his girlfriend when I was little. I started hiking by myself as I got older because it became a really good way to get myself out of the house, especially whenever I got depressed or anxious. I also have adhd, and I think it helps with the symptoms quite a bit but I can’t really explain why. I don’t feel the need to take my medication on the days I have long hikes planned.

Do you hike regularly and why?

Hiking is also something that I’ve been able to fall back on whenever life started crashing around me. I’m a recent grad and a former nasa intern, but right now my physics background isn’t getting me anywhere other than unemployment and it’s really defeating. Since I’ve become unemployed (I blame a combination of Doge, and the already existing lack of funding or care for science in this country) but I started planning out longer hikes to get through it. I had the idea of thru hiking the CDT, PCT, the AT, and the Colorado Trail, as a retirement plan, I'm not retired but I'm gonna start with the Colorado Trail this summer.

I’ve spent the past few months getting rejected from 100s of job posting (and I think most of the job posting in science are ghost jobs right now). I had two separate offers, one in March and another in April, get pulled from me while I was looking for apartments fully prepared to relocate and start at a new company. In both cases I was just told the job no longer existed or the funding was no longer there for me. So my partner and I are downgrading to a one bedroom apartment they can afford on their own, I’m selling a lot of my stuff, and my savings is drained. Preparing for the CT is keeping me happy right now, I’m exited for it. My partner just bought me new shoes just for the CT. I need this hike.

Have you noticed any changes in the hiking community over the past few years?

A bit. Climate change is effecting the hiking seasons and making it harder to predict weather, which makes it harder to pack light.

Hope this all helps

[Pcypher]

What got me into it?

Colorado native turned 30 and realized I hadn’t really “lived”. Started hiking, running and skiing at that time. Also was embarrassed living in CO and never having done these things at that point in life. I had enjoyed camping/fishing with my father as a kid so the mountains were comfortable. I also love adventure and exploring.

Hike regularly? Why?

Yes, not as consistent as I’d like due to work and energy fluxes. I try to hike once a week and I purposely sign up for endurance events to keep me fit enough to engage in 14ers and section hiking the CO trail. I also feel like the mountains are spiritual and I’m closer to God in them. I also like to feel small and be humbled.

Changes in hiking community:

Absolutely. In 14 short years the trails have changed a lot for peaks like Bierstadt (my first). Local hiking parks are the same; trails which were once single track are now double and many areas look worn and beat up compared to several years ago. I definitely feel like bikers have a stronger presence at local hiking parks and we compete for space and time. Most people are still really nice but there are some real pieces of work out there too, more so in recent years. I also feel like many hikers don’t understand who has the right of way (uphill does). I do think more people that have moved here have done so in order to enjoy the outdoors and endless adventure so it’s easier to find someone willing to explore with you.

Good luck with your project and I hope you do share once it’s complete!

[boudreaux]

When I was a little kid in 1971, my parents brought us up to Colorado for an epic vacation from the swamps of Louisiana. My parents had friends in the Springs and they ran a mountaineering school named The Forward School of Mountaineering. I learned the basics, but it was much later in 1991 when I moved to Vail that things got started for me.

What inspired you to start hiking?: It was just the enormous wide open expanses of natural beauty that attracted me. I just loved to go out an explore something, to see what was beyond the next turn of the trail, over the next hill, etc. I just kept pushing myself to see and experience more and more. That 1st week in 1991 got me to the top of Pikes Peak. My aching head and lungs burning from the long haul up The Barr Trail. On the summit it was a great feeling of jubilation that I Made It! I got down on my knees and cried, very emotional moment. Looking back on the whole thing gave me a great sense of satisfaction. I could feel an excitement welling up in my soul. A couple days after I recovered from this tremendous climb, an intense anticipation on what I was going to do next consumed my every thought. What was next?

Yeah, it's addicting, that mountain fever really impacted my life. I thought I was coming up here for a short stay. Changed the course of my life after that.

I don't know where you are, but if you can, go interview a professional mountain guide/outfitter. I bet they would have some amazing stories to share with you? Definitely add to your information portfolio. Worth a shot?

Do you hike regularly and why?: I also go about once a week. Not always to the backcountry. I have a few front range favorites that I do on a regular basis until the snows melt. Like Jay521, I need to feed the need for the evergreens filling my nostrils, sucking in that crisp mountain air, hearing the aspen leaves rustling in the wind. In between the adventures, I walk a few miles 4 or 5 times a week. My wife can tell when I haven't been up in the hills in a while. She tells me to go take hike, you look depressed. Sound advice. I'm out the door in a flash, on to the next adventure.


Have you noticed any chamges?: More people hiking the peaks. Back in 1991 the 14ers were not that well known. I'm not sure if Roach's 14er guide was published yet. There were no crowds on the Front Range peaks yet. Annual summit counts were still in the low hundreds, even for the local Front Range 14ers. Bierstadt didn't even have the bridge crossing the peatbog. Oh yeah, that was a big change about 1996.

Trail maintenance wasn't a thing yet. There are several trail organizations that go out annually to maintain, repair and build (improve) the trails on the big peaks. Pack it in, Pack it out is a great rule to remember. Leave No Trace.

Gear and clothing is better. Social media can keep you in touch with the family and friends, but it's still good to bring along the topo map and compass. Better energy food today. Remember those nasty Powerbars? Many, many trail guides and survival guides today to help you learn to navigate the terrain.

Trail ettiquette is a dying practice. Please be considerate of others. It goes along way into making your experience and the experience of others better. We all like music, but should you blare your tunes on the trail? Graffitti is on the rise, take pictures instead. I know it sounds like a rant, just sayin what we can all do to get along to enjoy the experience more.

I also believe more people are willing to lend a hand if someone needs a little help. I have seen people helping others quite a bit. Very encouraging considering what we have all descended into these days. We all have one goal in mind to get to the top, reach out to a struggling climber, make some lasting memories.

Gather up all this information, read a good mountaineering book like Freedom of the Hills, develop your skills, chart your training highs & lows. Where you went to develop them, what you learned in the process and go climb a 14er. Then put all this together in your research paper slash trip report. You will knock the sensible shoes off your apple eating school teacher who probably never ventured futher than the school library to seek mountain adventure.

[DeTour]

Don’t we love to talk about ourselves …
I wandered the woods a lot as a youth, frequently alone, but wasn’t a hiker as an adult. Devoted to providing for my family and trying to be a good husband/father, with mixed results.

For my 30-year class reunion in 2006 we were given a form that included the question, “what do you do for fun?” I wrote, “Nothing. I work all the time.” That got me thinking, I’m all for the Protestant work ethic and all, but not really a balanced life I’m living here.

A year later my brother talked me into joining him on a trip to Colorado to climb Longs Peak. Tricked me into it actually, by making it sound like a done deal with several work friends, when in reality it was just a hairbrained idea they were kicking around. You should come too, he said to me. I said yes, mainly because, you know, siblings. Plus I thought he would be less likely to do something dumb and fall off the mountain if I was there - which was in hindsight faulty reasoning, but it worked.

I was an almost-50 YO out-of-shape guy from the flatlands of Northern Michigan. When I told friends and family of the plan, most thought it a bit crazy. But my youngest daughter, then 20, was wired differently. “Ohhhh, that sounds like fun. I want to go too!” That made it a true family affair, and changed everything.

We climbed Longs in 2007, in what was expected to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It was brutally hard, but we all summited and survived. By the next day, the hunger to do more started. Fed by drooling over mountain porn photos on this website. The next summer we did four beautiful San Juan peaks.

I’m now at 45 14er summits and countless trail miles, most in Colorado, also Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ontario. My brother and daughter have similar experiences, much but not all together. Mountains, and hiking, have become a core part of who I am. I’m a (very fallible) Christian first, but as long as I live in this world, I hope to be hitting the trails.

The mountains are not my church. I have a great church, and some very dear friends there. Our relationships have been forged on the trails as much as anywhere. I do know this about the mountains: my paltry and corrupted human mind is better able to grasp the nature of God there - His omnipotent, omnipresent and eternal character. I do feel closer to the Most High when I am up high.

Meanwhile, my daughter moved to Colorado after college. Met a great guy who joined us on our expeditions. One of the first things she told me about him was, “Dad he’s really strong and can carry a really heavy pack to camp!” Now he’s my son-in-law, and Dear Daughter is due to deliver our first grandchild any day now. Their social media announcement has a photo of adorable size 1 hiking shoes and the statement “New hiking partner April 2025.” The tradition continues ….

[JROSKA]

I’ll try to contribute.

1) I started hiking mainly to find a “slow paced” way to enjoy the mountains. I suffered a pretty bad shoulder injury while skiing right after moving out here and turned 40 not long afterwards. So I wanted to find a different and more deliberate way to be in the mountains. Also, generic mountain drives and day trips to Rocky Mountain National Park started to get repetitive after a few years so hiking (and hiking 14ers in general) seemed like a nice way to fix that.

2) I still hike regularly. But why, that’s a good question. If I’m being completely honest, it’s about the 14er checklist and accomplishing the goal of finishing the list of 58. I have 7 left. I didn’t set out in the beginning to climb all of the 14ers but that’s definitely the overriding mindset now. As a Christian I hope I’m not setting a bad example here because goals should never become all encompassing. But at the same time, goals are healthy and lukewarmness is never a good thing. I’m learning that saying “I’m fine either way” will generally lead to the goal not being reached. So at this point I can admit that the goal of finishing is what’s driving me. At the age I’m at now, I have to spend most of the spring getting out on training hikes every few weeks. But again, that ties into the ultimate goal of wrapping up the 14er checklist.

My hope is that in a few years, my answer to “why do you hike” can revert to more of its innocent beginnings for me, like just enjoying the mountains, treasuring nature, fellowship, and taking nice pictures. But for now it’s about the checklist mentality.

3) In terms of the hiking community changing over the years, it seems like it’s a bit more friendly now on the peaks. I can’t tell if that’s just in my head or if it’s actually true. I guess it’s mostly on the training hikes around Denver where I notice people are friendlier, talkative and more laid back than 10 years ago. But maybe I’ve changed too, who knows.

[josephnephi]

I'm 22 so I'm pretty new to this whole hiking thing...

What inspired you to start hiking?
I climbed a lot of peaks with my dad as a kid in elementary/middle school but didn't really do so as much in high school. I didn't really hike at great volume until college. Basically, I was miserable at the beginning of the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, and decided to start working on finishing the 14ers. I felt a lot happier and had a purpose so I quickly started adding in 13ers, and then (lord forbid) 12ers .

Do you hike regularly and why?
Yes and no. Right now, hiking is a very seasonal activity for me. A lot of that just comes down to the fact that I'm in school right now. I could make it out every weekend, but I don't find myself particularly drawn to lower peaks and the traffic from the front range makes it just not worth it to me. In the summer, however, it's basically my full-time job. As for why I keep doing it: I find that the list aspect of it gives me a sense of accomplishment AND I enjoy the physical act of doing it. It is a nice mix of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, which I find better than either by itself.

Have you noticed any changes in the hiking community over the past few years?
I'm young, so the "past few years" is basically my entire peakbagging career, but I think the general trend in top-level mountaineering/hiking/peakbagging has drifted towards accomplishments defined by qualifiers such as style, speed, or volume. Particularly in the lower 48, and to some extent worldwide, there really aren't that many "headliner" first ascents anymore. As a result, increasingly, the idea of a fastest known time (FKT), or being fast in general, is a really important component of the discourse. Examples of this include Kristin Harila+Tenjin Sherpa on the 8000ers, Kilian Jornet on the Alps 4000ers, and more locally, Alex Walker on the Holy Nolans. To some extent, this has been facilitated by better equipment, connectivity, and weather forecasting. Gear is better/lighter, you can call in a weather forecast from basically anywhere in the world, and most routes are well documented so people can go fast and light without it costing you (most of the time). Similarly, the idea of finishing a big list like the 13ers has become increasingly popular.

[Monte Meals]

I'll take a bite too ...

And - just for some overview, I turn 78 in a couple of months and have had the hiking bug since I was 19 or so.

I grew up in Memphis so zero hiking until ...
I enrolled at UT Knoxville and met my bride (to be) at Leconte Lodge (Smoky Mountains) working a High School summer job.

50+ years later and still bliss !
We live in Colorado Springs and go hiking (or skiing ) together at least 5 days a week.

What is this thing that you call "social media" ? Do they have pot luck dinners?

Yes hiking in the Rockies has DRAMATICALLY changed since the 1970's
Back then - paper topo maps and a compass were de rigueur for most 14'ers
I mostly climb 13'ers these days - the 14'ers are just too crowded.
Permits ? We didn't need no stinking permits !
Crowds on trails? NOPE. The only "Conga Lines" experienced were waiting to get into the (Boulder) Dark Horse on a Friday Night.

[greenonion]

I'll take a bite too ...

And - just for some overview, I turn 78 in a couple of months and have had the hiking bug since I was 19 or so.

I grew up in Memphis so zero hiking until ...
I enrolled at UT Knoxville and met my bride (to be) at Leconte Lodge (Smoky Mountains) working a High School summer job.

50+ years later and still bliss !
We live in Colorado Springs and go hiking (or skiing ) together at least 5 days a week.

What is this thing that you call "social media" ? Do they have pot luck dinners?

Yes hiking in the Rockies has DRAMATICALLY changed since the 1970's
Back then - paper topo maps and a compass were de rigueur for most 14'ers
I mostly climb 13'ers these days - the 14'ers are just too crowded.
Permits ? We didn't need no stinking permits !
Crowds on trails? NOPE. The only "Conga Lines" experienced were waiting to get into the (Boulder) Dark Horse on a Friday Night.

Bravo!

[Jay521]

I'll take a bite too ...

And - just for some overview, I turn 78 in a couple of months and have had the hiking bug since I was 19 or so.

I grew up in Memphis so zero hiking until ...
I enrolled at UT Knoxville and met my bride (to be) at Leconte Lodge (Smoky Mountains) working a High School summer job.

50+ years later and still bliss !
We live in Colorado Springs and go hiking (or skiing ) together at least 5 days a week.

What is this thing that you call "social media" ? Do they have pot luck dinners?

Yes hiking in the Rockies has DRAMATICALLY changed since the 1970's
Back then - paper topo maps and a compass were de rigueur for most 14'ers
I mostly climb 13'ers these days - the 14'ers are just too crowded.
Permits ? We didn't need no stinking permits !
Crowds on trails? NOPE. The only "Conga Lines" experienced were waiting to get into the (Boulder) Dark Horse on a Friday Night.

Bravo!

+1

[mtree]

What inspired you to start hiking?

I was tricked.

Do you hike regularly and why?

Yes. I'm good at it, like the scenery, and its a quiet workout (usually).

Have you noticed any changes in the hiking community over the past few years?

Past few years? Not really. Past 10+ years... more crowds especially within 3 hours of Denver. Bigger mix of hikers from hard core gear snobs to day trippers in sandals. To be expected given the larger numbers.