First Ascent

About this board game

First Ascent is a competitive rock climbing strategy game for 2-5 players, with play sessions lasting about 90 minutes. Each player takes on a unique asymmetric climber and seeks to earn the most points by creating the best route up the mountain.

Build your ascent by climbing adjacent mountain tiles, leaving your rope behind to mark the route. To climb a pitch, spend the required combination of climbing skills, gear, water, and psych. Higher-value tiles offer more points but demand greater preparation, while climbers compete for prime locations because most tiles can hold only one climber.

Every climb can reveal an event through a climbing card, creating decisions involving resource management, board manipulation, and selfish or altruistic choices. If you lack a required resource, you can risk it by rolling the risk dice to climb for one less resource. Success may come with no consequence, but other results can force you to give cards or psych to another player.

• Objectives: Pursue shared and personal goals based on the path of your route.
• Technique bonuses: Match three symbols for precision, power, balance, or pain tolerance to gain bonus points.
• Engine building: Play four cards of a specific skill type or gear to gain an earned asset that supports future climbs.
• Summit bonuses: Reach a peak for an additional point while focusing on the journey, not simply a race to the top.

Plan carefully as you improve your efficiency and manage the assets needed for increasingly demanding pitches. First Ascent ends when a player uses all seven rope lengths and climbs their eighth tile, so every route choice matters from the opening move to the final ascent.