What Got You Hooked

[Dru]

Climbing - probably hiking up the Chief trail when I was 6 or 7

 

Spraying - being given free beer for having posted on cc

[lancegranite]

I saw climbers up on SEWS during a backcountry snowboarding trip....the thought of it just blew my mind!

[curtveld]

The mountains always called – it just took me a while to get there. At 15, I was the “kid” on a Parks and Rec climb of Three Finger Jack. Trip leader Todd was a legendary for having done a Smith wall with a bivy - SOLO! The climb was exposed and Todd top-roped me up the summit pinnacle: “Good job - first of many summits!” Got soaked on the walk out, but I knew I’d found something.

[wfinley]

When I was 13 my brother took me on a 10 day backpacking trip in the Selway Bitterboot. I was fresh from the east coast and had never really been in the mountains. One night we camped next to a lake with a big beautiful mountain (Marble Mountain) above us. I asked if we could hike up there and he said we need ropes to do that. "Ropes?" was my response.

 

A year later I received a huge box from my brother for Christmas. In it was his old climbing rope, a harness, some biners, hexes, the old SMC rap device that was a bar across an oval biner, a bong (the climbing kind) and some ratty EBs complete with holes in the toe.

 

My brother eased off as he got older - but when his son turned 13 I took my nephew and my brother up the Owen Spalding route on the Grand. Given my nephews look at the top I think I returned the favor.

[RoastyJones]

The Boardman Tasker Omnibus shortly after my first climbing trip

[olyclimber]

Challenge of the North Cascades

[Mal_Con]

Buildering and buddies clickin carabiners at Hagget Hall.

[EWolfe]

Challenge of the North Cascades

 

Shut Up! You've already said your piece.

[olyclimber]

poor widdle erik

[EWolfe]

How long has it been since YOU started a GOOD Climbing Thread, Pal?

[olyclimber]

they're all good, chap.

 

also, reading Nanga Partbat Pilgrimage got me stoked

[MPaul_Hansen]

RE: What got you started in climbing ....

Introduced to hiking in my youth by friends...and followed.

Friends then graduated to 'scrambling' and in turn to

climbing when older.

Since that time just another way to enjoyed the outdoors,

be sociable, and get some exercise for conditioning, physical fitness.

[ryland_moore]

Climbing the classic Great Arch (5.5) at Stone Mountain State Park, North Cakalakie with a family friend and climbing idol when I was 14. It was my first rock climb and I was hooked from that point forward!

 

 

 

 

[mattp]

As children, my mother used to take us hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. At age 8, my buddy Peter and I camped and climbed Mt. Monadnock in southern New Hampshire without any adults along. This was independence.

[still_climbin]

When I was eight my father took me on a day hike high in the Wallowas of NE Oregon. I never forgot the excitement I felt at the beauty and isolation. After that it was all backpacking and fishing, the more romote and further off-trail the lake the better. When I was 12 I talked a couple of buddies on a scouting trip into climbing 9000 ft Lookout Peak in the Wallowas. The Scoutmaster never found out but I was hooked from then on. By the time I was at WSU and had access to more climbers it became a religion. That was all in the sixties and since then I've continued climbing with various degrees of passion. Now, my son is into it and I find great joy in letting him lead the hard stuff while I clean.. Ahh, the life of a climbing sage!

[wfinley]

Climbing the classic Great Arch (5.5) at Stone Mountain State Park, North Cakalakie with a family friend and climbing idol when I was 14.

 

That was the first multi-pitch route I ever did... Leading the 5.4 entracne crack pitch with no pro scared me to death! Good memories!

[Chad_A]

Initial exposure was rock climbing in tennis shoes in Wisconsin. The name of the area escapes me, for some reason.

 

But, what got me hooked, was that same person that showed me rock climbing, dragged me up to Camp Hazard on Rainier for my first time, in 2000. I never had set foot on a mountain, and I had no idea what I was getting into, but I wanted to come back; still haven't had a chance to finish off the Kautz. Anyway, I finished up school, and transferred out here. Haven't looked back.