Does anyone do any mountaineering?

[PDH]

One thing I do notice is that when I take out of town visitors with me, they tend to get winded more easily than I do. Except my cousin from Denver. I sleep every night at 5000 feet. So you can't discount the difference in the air up high. It definitely matters.

Pussy, I sleep at 7220 feet.

For the record, I try to climb to the top of the Snowies about 30 miles outside of town each year, about 12,000 feet.  Fairly nice trail climb, once the snow is gone (by July).

[Barrister]

I don't know what is meant by 'mountaineering'.  I don't do any climbing - never have.

I have done plenty of mountain hikes.  Most difficult of which was a 5 day hike of the Chilkoot Trail.  The golden staircase nearly kicked my ass, but I made it.   

[alfred russel]

Do you guys go by yourself?

The reason I'm asking is I am thinking about working toward climbing some nontechnical ~20k ft. mountains. I've been up to 14k ft without problems, but I didn't climb to get there, so I figure that doesn't mean much. I'd like to take a crack at a 15k ft. mountain with a guide to see how things go.

[Monoriu]

We climbed a 400ft high mountain which is within 5 minutes walking distance to our hotel in Sri Lanka.  The tour was supposed to last 45 minutes, and we took about 4 hours to complete.  After the trip, even the wallet was soaked.  I was unable to move for the rest of the day.  I also broke a walking cane into two halves during the climb. 

[Capetan Mihali]

Why not take up something safer and more enjoyable like Russian roulette or IV drugs?  Better watch that movie with the handsome Portuguese-American guy (ah James Franco that's his name) cutting off his own arm to get prepared...

[PRC]

I do a lot of hiking in the backcountry.  Mostly long day hikes of 15 km to 20 km but when I have the time I will do backcountry camping trips of 3 to 4 days at a time, hike in hike out.  About five years ago I moved to Alberta from Vancouver Island and the amount of world class hiking at hand in this area is amazing (Vancouver Island is great as well though).  Waterton Lakes National Park is 2.5 hours away from Calgary and that's the Northern entrance to Glacier National Park which is unbelievable.  Kananaskis, Banff, Yoho, Jasper are all within driving distance.  I've been able to do a tonne trips in this area, everything from easy forest trails to scramble approaches to ridge walks.

I'm not a gear head by any means but I totally advocate using walking poles.  They take so much stress off your knees.  For day trips i'd recommend getting a camelbak style pack for your water but make sure you get one that has some room to pack a rain jacket or other extra clothing, your lunch and some other essentials like a camera, binoculars, medical kit, etc.

Wildlife in this area can be an issue, i've had a lot of bear and moose encounters but I haven't carried any bear spray.  I only take a whistle which has never been a problem but I have been thinking about bringing bear spray after doing Crypt Lake in Waterton where I was stalked by a Grizzly for a bit.  It was just curious and was never threatening but the bear spray would have given me a bit more piece of mind... the problem with that shit is it only works well if you fire it when the bear is very close which usually means it's charging.

If you're going to do high mountain passes or ridge lines over 10 k then you should make sure you pack some gloves.  I've been caught in some mountain snowstorms in the middle of August when you set out on a sunny day and even if the sun is out the wind up there can be brutal, be prepared for the worst.

If you ever find yourself hiking up near Glacier National Park or Waterton let me know.

[citizen k]

  I did Mt. Phillips when I was a teenager and it was a piece of cake....

Did you do Mt. Baldy and the Tooth of Time at Philmont?

Mt. Baldy is around 12,000 ft.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Hmmm................Kilimanjaro is a straightforward walk but is 19341 feet high. It might be a good starter for you, as it would enable you to find out your susceptibility to altitude sickness and whatnot before trying more remote peaks with less back up.

[Brazen]

Do you guys go by yourself?

That's a great idea so long as you bring a really sharp hobby knife to cut your arm off when it gets trapped.

[Caliga]

Did you do Mt. Baldy and the Tooth of Time at Philmont?

Mt. Baldy is around 12,000 ft.

We did not do Baldy as we weren't on that trail.  I think we might have done Tooth of Time, but honestly I forget.  This was like 20 years ago now.

[Caliga]

a 400ft high mountain

That sounds more like a hill, son.

[Brazen]

a 400ft high mountain

That sounds more like a hill, son.

Need some batteries for your irony detector?

Mono, do you ever walk up The Peak? That's 1,811 ft.

[Zanza]

I climbed a 4100 meter mountain (Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo) last year, doing more than 2300 height meters up and then down again within a day. That was quite exhausting, but also fun. I really should do that more, especially when considering that I live close to the Black Forest and the Alps.
The aforementioned Kilimanjaro is definitely on my list of todos.

As far as climbing goes, I did some rock climbing before. Quite fun, but my upper body is too weak and my ass is too fat. Canyoning on the other hand (climbing down a mountain through some gorge) is really a lot of fun.

[Eddie Teach]

I'm afraid of heights.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I wandered up Mt Fuji when I was in Japan.  Its more of a shitty walk up a slope than a climb though.