When Colorado Springs outdoorsman Chris Mattingly got Mount Rainier on his mind, he did not think the summit would require seven attempts. This was the result of a variety of factors — logistical errors, weather, a pulled groin muscle. It seemed the world was telling him to abandon the pursuit.

But Mattingly, 72, kept going back.

“The (lesson) I always gave my sons was, if you want something bad enough, don’t ever give up trying,” he said.

“That’s kind of my nature. I guess that’s why I (stuck) with the AdAmAn Club as a guest climber for seven years.”

He will be a guest no more for the club’s historic mission to ascend Pikes Peak for New Year’s Eve fireworks at 14,115 feet. Mattingly has gained the honor of member — the 104th name added to the legendary roster dating to 1922, when five men began the bold, holiday tradition and decided to add one climber each year.

In the AdAmAn Club’s centennial celebration, Mattingly is set to lead the group up Barr Trail the morning of Dec. 30 for the two-day ascent, as per tradition for new members. He is expected to lead about 30 other members and guests.

To be among the former is an honor, yes, and also a relief for Mattingly. That’s especially considering his age, he said.

“I thought that would be the reason why it wouldn’t be possible for me to become a member,” he said.

The selection process every year is a subjective one between members who weigh guest experience, mountaineering resume and volunteerism. In recent years, leaders have said they’ve also favored younger people. That’s in hopes of inspiring the next generation to carry on the aging club.

Mattingly was found to be a worthy exception.

His family roots in Colorado Springs span to the 1970s, when his father was stationed at Ent Air Force Base. Young Mattingly, meanwhile, stayed back for Air Force Reserve Officer Training at Southern Illinois University — though, he always enjoyed visiting to ski at The Broadmoor.

After 30 years with the Air Force around the world, Mattingly retired and settled in the Springs in 2004. This is where he deepened his love for the outdoors after joining the Colorado Mountain Club. He also picked up a job at REI, where he still works today.

Early on there, a colleague invited him to climb a fourteener.

“I said, ‘What’s a fourteener?’” Mattingly recalled. “You know, when I was working on commercial instrument ratings, I did a flyover from Hill Air Force Base in Utah to Illinois, and I flew around Colorado because of all the fourteeners. I didn’t look at them as climbing mountains, I looked at them as obstacles.”

Overcoming them, he learned, was a feeling like no other. After that ascent of Mount Sherman, “I said, ‘I’ve gotta do a few more of these.’”

He went on to scale all 54. All the while, he set his sights higher.

He summitted Africa’s ceiling, Mount Kilimanjaro, and made attempts at two other of the world’s highest seven summits: Russia’s Mount Elbrus and Argentina’s Aconcagua. Even at 72, he’d like to settle those scores.

“Is it a waste of time?” he asked himself. “I don’t think it’s a waste of time.”

And no, he decided, it was no waste of time vying for membership in the AdAmAn Club. He kept going to volunteer events to plant trees and fix up Barr Trail, kept coming back as a guest every New Year’s Eve. Ever analytical, he kept poring over data, trying to determine how long guests waited in the queue before earning membership (four guest climbs is the historic average, the club has calculated).

In his research, Mattingly came to admire the historic names on the roster even more. “I said, ‘I want to be someone like that,’” he said.

“You know, when I grew up, I was always the shortest kid in the class. If anybody wanted to beat somebody up, they’d go pick on Chris, because he’s the scrawny one. Now I’m a mountaineer, and it doesn’t matter how tall you are, how strong you are. You’ve got to have willpower and guts, and I think that’s what drew me to be a mountaineer and to the AdAmAn Club.”

How many more New Year’s Eve climbs he has in him, he isn’t sure.

“I have to face the facts, I’m running out of time,” he said. “I don’t know what life holds for me, but I hope I can continue to climb as many times as I can.”