How a 16 year old can get into mountaineering

Hey everyone! 

I recently discovered the sport of mountaineering and im in love. I'm only a teenager and I know 0 people who are also into this sport. My end goal is to be a experienced mountain climber and climb mountains like the matterhorn and Mont Blanc. What do you think my first steps should be do dive into this sport?

Thank you!

I started when I was 16.  Though I haven't made it to Matterhorn or Mont Blanc, I'd start with a local club to learn best practices in general.  But I would also suggest not remaining there for long.  :)

Read about it. Get the book, Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills.

Get fit, half or full marathon shape, and your time in the mountains will be much more enjoyable. I started with an RMI course on Rainier (would recommend) to get my feet wet, and from there it was lots of incremental steps, choosing objectives/guides/partners based on what I hoped to climb in the future. Great climbing in the Tetons, Cascades, Sierras where you can build your skills. FOTH is a great book to study too, and getting into rock climbing will put you in a better shape for the more technical climbs like the Matterhorn. Even though the standard routes are 5.5ish, you want that to be well below your limit if you want to move fast. Good luck, stay safe! 

Go take a NOLS course! It just might change your life. 

+1 for both the NOLS recommendation and the marathon fitness idea.  Cardio and leg endurance is what you want most for mountaineering.  And if you learn how to travel and camp well in the backcountry, you’ll be a good ways there, too.  So go hiking and backpacking and biking and running whenever you can’t actually be climbing the mountains.

Do you live near mountains, Shiv?  Not required, but it is nice when your training days are already in the mountains.  Do you live in a city or region that has a good local mountain club?  Like Bill said, they can be a great source of training and partners and mentors.  If you’re in rural Nebraska, join the cross country team, fall asleep reading Freedom of the Hills every night, and live for your summer job placement in Colorado or Montana with the SCA.  You’re making me wish I was 16 again and it was all new and still ahead of me...

Joshwrote:

+1 for both the NOLS recommendation and the marathon fitness idea.  Cardio and leg endurance is what you want most for mountaineering.  And if you learn how to travel and camp well in the backcountry, you’ll be a good ways there, too.  So go hiking and backpacking and biking and running whenever you can’t actually be climbing the mountains.

Do you live near mountains, Shiv?  Not required, but it is nice when your training days are already in the mountains.  Do you live in a city or region that has a good local mountain club?  Like Bill said, they can be a great source of training and partners and mentors.  If you’re in rural Nebraska, join the cross country team, fall asleep reading Freedom of the Hills every night, and live for your summer job placement in Colorado or Montana with the SCA.  You’re making me wish I was 16 again and it was all new and still ahead of me...

Thank you for your reply!!!! Ill definitely take your advice to heart. In terms of mountains not really. I live in Ontario canada which is fairly flat but there are some small hiking routes near me. Ill definitely research some mountain clubs near me!

Right on, Shiv.  I don't know your area too well myself, but I did spend a lovely week out on the Gaspe pennisula once, and it had some great rugged mountain terrain.  Family road trip to Quebec?  ;)

Hey Shiv, we have a lot in common.  I started out similar to you.  Been on the Matterhorn and “Mon’ Blaah” several times and guided in the Alps.  Good advice in the above posts.  In addition to reading and studying all you can while you are flatland bound, you can start practicing and fiddling in your living room with some key systems and knots with any cheap equipment from the hardware store.  The ideas and hands on skills will make more sense if you practice as you read/learn, and will easily transfer.  Even better if you can snag some real gear.   With any old hank of rope, a handful of oval biners, a Reverso, and a Tibloc, you can rig and practice set ups for anchors, crevasse rescue, rappels, ascending techniques, belays, hoists, etc. all from the comfort of your living room.  Don’t do it for real though outside, without the proper real ropes and gear and with a skilled partner.    To find a good partner, I recommend you seek out the most athletic girl in class and ask her if she wants to go climb mountains.   If the answer is “yes”, you found your training partner.   I’ve found all my best partners just loitering in French cafes around Chamonix and making small talk with local mademoiselles.   Ontario is very large, and not sure where you are specifically, but northern Ontario has awesome alpine practice areas for both rock and ice along the shores of Superior up through lake Nipigon  .

Right on, Pepe.  Absolutely no common sense in disregarding half the population as a pool of potential adventure partners. 

Very carefully?

Pepe LePoseurwrote:

Hey Shiv, we have a lot in common.  I started out similar to you.  Been on the Matterhorn and “Mon’ Blaah” several times and guided in the Alps.  Good advice in the above posts.  In addition to reading and studying all you can while you are flatland bound, you can start practicing and fiddling in your living room with some key systems and knots with any cheap equipment from the hardware store.  The ideas and hands on skills will make more sense if you practice as you read/learn, and will easily transfer.  Even better if you can snag some real gear.   With any old hank of rope, a handful of oval biners, a Reverso, and a Tibloc, you can rig and practice set ups for anchors, crevasse rescue, rappels, ascending techniques, belays, hoists, etc. all from the comfort of your living room.  Don’t do it for real though outside, without the proper real ropes and gear and with a skilled partner.    To find a good partner, I recommend you seek out the most athletic girl in class and ask her if she wants to go climb mountains.   If the answer is “yes”, you found your training partner.   I’ve found all my best partners just loitering in French cafes around Chamonix and making small talk with local mademoiselles.   Ontario is very large, and not sure where you are specifically, but northern Ontario has awesome alpine practice areas for both rock and ice along the shores of Superior up through lake Nipigon  .

Damnnn thanks for all the advice!

Not exactly a lot of mountains in Ontario, but if you are willing to drive you can for sure find some stuff.

Lots of rock climbing around the escarpment though.

My best advice is study hard, get a good job, and move to the PNW. The money is night and day here and the mountaineering is world class. 

ex-southern-ontarian here. 

Get "lost", regularly, even in town. 

Here's what I mean:

My son started exploring here, as soon as he could ride a bike. Learning the "lay of the land", getting a sense of where he was. Around town, at first, learning street names, the layout of the place. That territory extended to outdoor hikes, and eventually multistate trips (still our "backyard") in very remote places. He knows the localish area in detail, and a very large territory pretty well now. He has the skills to go anywhere he wants, anytime, any season.

He joined the local SAR here in his teens, and was teaching navigation pretty quickly. He got an EMT ticket at 18. Learned how and what to pack (he has summer and winter packs ready to go at all times), avalanche and snow skills, and survival....lots and lots you can learn right now, without any mountains at all.

He's been doing all of this nonstop, almost a decade with SAR now, an EMT professionally. That means he gets nice blocks of time off to go explore....whatever. Still years away from 30.

Get instruction wherever it is offered, preferably from people that use whatever skill they're teaching. So, CPR from the paramedics, navigation and survival from SAR, etc. Do you have an REI? See what they offer, and who teaches it. It isn't necessarily REI. SAR here teaches map skills for them. You need access to stuff, to learn, that can come from anywhere, but you need to also figure out what you actually need....and don't. Classes, clubs, scouting, self instruction. Check out climbing gyms, get started there. Learn enough to know you don't know shit.

But really?

It's you, you are working on. Feed the passion, work on the fitness and knowledge, build skills....but having the head game is the most important "skill" of all. Especially starting as a teen. Get out of your peer group, and in with post college age climbers, if you can. People who have already faced ugly shit. Makes it real.

And enjoy!

Best, Helen

EDIT to add, definitely NOLS, if there's any way you can swing it. 

My advice from one Ontarian to another: go to the climbing gym. That’s probably the best way to meet people that climb outside too. As long as you’re stoked and positive, people will climb with you. Check out local crags, even just on your own for a day hike: Mount Nemo and Rattlesnake Point in Halton, the Niagara Glen in Niagara Falls are good places to start.

Oh, and get to BC ASAP! lol 

This article more or less covers it:
https://www.summitpost.org/alpinism-101-an-introduction/756518

If you're thinking about college, go somewhere with mountain access. Vancouver comes to mind. Short of that Montreal isn't bad. Not many mountains nearby, but world class ice climbing and decent rock climbing is available. That'll get you started. I don't know what the university situation is in alberta. The Canadian Rockies are a world class training ground, but I get the impression they're quite far from any of the local universities. Calgary is like 3 hours drive I think? But perhaps that could work too.

You will need money and time. That's a tough combo to score. Make life and career decisions accordingly, but don't neglect that some careers are more suitable in mountainous provinces than others (e.g. compare geology vs. marketing). Getting a harness, sport draws, rope and rock shoes may be tough but should be manageable. Your biggest initial barrier will be buying a trad rack (set of stoppers, doubles in cams from 0.3-3). In the US that comes out to around $600-1000. Your next barrier will be mountaineering boots and ice gear. That will be $2000-$3000 if you include the clothing. Backcountry camping gear will follow, or be accumulated gradually throughout. Ski touring gear will come in at some point too. If you already know how to ski, great. If not, get this sooner so you have time to learn too. That'll be another $2-3k, but a used alpine setup for resort use will do early on for learning and cost much much less (all USD, do your own conversions). None of that covers gas getting to and from the crag, gym memberships getting strong, or travel expenses for gaining experience. It's going to be a struggle.

Pepe, your advice is hilarious. I'm going to have to try it next time I'm in Cham. Any particular cafe's that come to mind? All the chamonairde women I've met just lecture me on pronunciation...

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/mountaineering-the-freedom-of-the-hills/266923/item/3111684/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw--GFBhDeARIsACH_kdY9HArcOZDiQjKkRY766B5wFLCvidDMlAQV1Fo_1hhk1ac9ZS0yXeUaAv4wEALw_wcB#idiq=3111684&edition=1526886

And a thumb to get you to your own Canadian Rockies.

PS. Traditional "joke": You're gonna die! 

(so might as well go climbing).

You're 16. Just let people know you really really really wanna get outside... and see if you actually enjoy it. Be the best partner you can manage, that's belaying well and being personable. Loads and loads of us will not only climb with new people, but enjoy it. Hell, I even have a harness, helmet, and some rope gun friends who will help. 

If this truly is "it"? 

Take AP classes and really be ready to jump, for college. Some places teach this stuff for credit, most at least have an outdoor program, if they have an outdoors nearby.

Study up, learn as you can, post on here a bunch, and annoy the crusties mightily. Usually? Our noob innocence provokes heaps of info....for good and bad.

You aren't the first teen to do this. Last season, I finally got to meet Eli Poss face to face. He started on MP as a high schooler. Went on with this in college, and it's what his life is now, all grown up. Super great guy! MP isn't what it used to be, but hey, there's still a few good folks on here. Go back through old stuff, look at the detailed, in depth, arguments for every single nuance of....well, everything, if you are good with that sort of input.

Bearbreeder, rgold, and Jim Titt all know their stuff! Others too, but those guys even cite the physics equations!

And?

Yeah, you still have constraints on you....sorta.

But at 16? 

More and more, it's up to you to make what you want of your life.

Go for it.... but aim to not die from an embarrassingly stoopyd thing. 

Be careful, and take charge of being certain what is proposed is safe.

The first task is surviving being new and ignorant. 

Best, Helen