Going up a mountain, and coming down again

UP and DOWN?

As in, I'm going UP the mountain

-or-

I'm hiking DOWN the mountain?

-or-

Going UP was very hard

- or -

Coming DOWN was very fast

My German isn't that bad, but it's been a lot of years since I studied. I've looked these phrases up on websites, in my dictionaries, on my CD programs, etc... Not one can give me an answer.

These are very simple phrases (I think) that I actually need to use on a daily basis. How do I say them properly?

Thanks!

Depends where you are standing in relation to whoever is doing the up or down thing.
If someone is coming towards you it would be herunter or herauf. If the person is going away you would use hinunter or hinauf. If you are climbing the mountain yourself I would use hinauf and hinunter.

Berg ansteigen is going up I think, and not so sure about descending however I think absteigen might help you out.

That actually makes a lot of sense. I knew it was something directional but couldn't remember the specifics. That just rattled my memory a bit.

Thanks Sara!

I'd translate the first set like sarabyrd and the second set with der Aufstieg/Der Abstieg.

Ansteigen is what your temperature does when you are ill. Absteigen is what you do from a motorcycle, you would never say "Ich steige den Berg ab", although the descent is called Abstieg. Hinauf and hinunter are where it's at.

thats actually quite good to know, living this close to the alps.

Okay, I only got up to 4th year German in a crappy American High School.

I mountain bike almost every day and I always meet people who ask me where I came from and how the ride was. We have many trails here so people like to share information. I just want to be able to say that the 'climb' was tough or the 'descent' was fun and fast or whatever. They key words being up and down.

up, down, ascent, descent...easy.

This would work well for skiing in the winter too.

yes , but " man kann Berg ab gehen"

But not something so formal.

C'mon, imagine rolling up on a bloke who just came up the other side of the hill on a bike. He asks 'how was the ride for you?'. You want to say, ' the climb up was a bitch.' All you can say is, 'es war schwer'. I know the words for 'roots' and 'tree stumps' and that shit, but can't say it when I can't communicate that I'm talking about riding 'up'.

You ask him how the downhill will be on the other side, but you have to point and smile and explain that your German sucks. They usually smile. If they don't, you squirt them with chain lube.

I usually have to resort to hand signs asking Wie ist es? while pointing downward. On the way up it is the same.

I'm sad to see there is no consensus on this. I thought it would be simple. No wonder I can't find an answer in a book. I also live in the Oberpfalz, so they may say something relating to pigs that unlocks all of this. It's hard to tell here.

Isn't it "Ich gehe den Berg hinauf"? Or if you're going down a mountain "Ich gehe den Berg hinab."
Edit: kinda like what Mariposa said.

yes , thats how i say it , although i tend to drop the hin , ie Berg auf oder Berg ab gehen

"Heute war bergauf (fahren) übel. Weißt Du, wie sieht's mit bergab (in die Richtung) aus?"

den Berg hochklettern :-)

But that means really... climbing!

Look what I found: "Wenn der Berg nicht zum Propheten kommt, muss der Prophet zum Berg gehen."

Otherwise, back to the question: den Berg BESTEIGEN.

Source: online leo.org, Englisch-Deutsch.

Not bad. More idiomatic/grammatically correct: "Heute war's bergauf (ganz) übel. Weißt Du, wie's bergab aussieht?"

Otherwise you can try Bavarian: "Aufazua war's a weng hantig. Was moanst, wia schaut's'n nachad owezua aus?"

Schleich di!

Zupf di, Hiasl!

Or "Hinauf war's recht gach. Wia is beim Nunterfahrn?"
The problem here is that Aufstieg and Abstieg mean walking. Abfahrt, as in riding down hill, no problem. But riding up the mountain ... Bergfahrt, there you go!
"Die Bergfahrt war irrsinnig steil. Wie ist die Abfahrt auf der anderen Seite?"

not necessarily ...

Tour de France

... Zwar konnte Dario Cioni zwischenzeitlich zu ihm aufschließen, doch der Italiener wurde beim Aufstieg zum Col de Bussang wieder abgehängt.

Hinter Rasmussen hatte sich zunächst eine Sechsergruppe gebildet. Im Aufstieg zum Ballon d'Alsace machten sich dann Jens Voigt und Christophe Moreau auf die Verfolgung von Rasmussen ...

Auf- und Abstieg mit Doping

Balloons can aufsteigen/absteigen too. So can football clubs.