[quote="surgent"]My first summit of any kind was Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia, age 18, in 1985.

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Mine as well but I was 20 and it was in 2002

I had hardly ever slept outdoors in my life when I did a 3 week backpacking trip through Yosemite's back country as a 25 year old. First hiking climb was Banner Peak, though I had to crawl up the last part on hands and knees because I was so out of breath. That started it all, and I have been making up for lost time ever since.

Bob Sihler wrote:First multi-pitch trad lead: Old Man's Route (5.2) at Seneca Rocks, WV. October 2012. Went up with my son, who was 8 at the time. I self-belayed using a Rock Exotica Soloist.

So there are all kinds of milestones.

8 yo's are great for testing anchors

First mountain was Old Rag in Shenandoah NP at about age 15. The rock scramble section got me interested in climbing. First real rock climbing and ascent of high (4000m+) peaks was a couple years later on a month long Outward Bound class in Colorado. COBS was seriously old skool; we climbed in leather boots and swami belt harnesses using gold line rope and body belays (in 1977).

This mountain outside of Aix-en-Provence in the summer of 1958 or 1959:

Route of ascent was a scree gulley out of sight to the right of the face in the picture.
My father had the great idea of climbing this mountain by the more challenging 3rd class route on this (southern) side, but we lost the route. I spied a scree-filled gulley off to the right and went for it. My father and siblings followed. We made it to the summit. I don't remember if we descended the same way or went down the gentle trail on the other side. This experience was really formative for me. I was only 6 or 7.

First mountain for me was Tryfan http://www.summitpost.org/tryfan/150335 917m, 3010ft in North Wales - in 1969, when I was 8 years old.

First Alpine peak was Frundenhorn http://www.summitpost.org/fr-ndenhorn/151484 3368m, 11,050ft in Switzerland in August 1973, when I was 12 years old.

Other than some little stuff back east, my first real climb was Mount Toll in the Indian Peaks of Colorado's Front Range.
Here it is, the day my wife, myself and my brother, whose pictured here, climbed it. - August, 1977.

It's a good thing your wife didn't tell you to jump in that lake, Bill.

Half Dome cables with my dad and two brothers in 1972 at age 12. I'll never forget it.

Though my first summit was technically Hidden Peak at Snowbird, UT, when I was quite young, the first peak I really climbed was nearby Mount Baldy, UT, at 11,068, for my 13th birthday party. My friends and I, chaperoned by my father and uncle, took the tram up, hiked down into Mineral Basin, up to Sugarloaf Pass, then scrambled up the ridge to the summit of Baldy, then hiked back to Hidden Peak and took the tram down.

Well, since MOST people mix climbing and hiking into the same question,
I don't remember my first hike. Though I do remember listening to Billy Joel & Pink Floyd & Blue Oyster Cult. Does that count??

Longs Peak was my first major hike/scramble. And it was AWESOME. It really lit the fire.

Dallas Peak in the San Juan's down by Telluride was my first real climb and first time actually repelling.
Never felt more alive than that. Holy shit.

I was so happy I went up Guadeloupe. The feeling when I reached the summit was an adrenaline rush that I had never had before. I know it's nothing major or extremely difficult, but it was exhilarating.