Hiking or climb a mountain?
When I ask many of my students what

they did last weekend, they often respond “I climbed a mountain.” I tell them “I think they mean they went hiking.”

To "climb a mountain" carries the sense of a difficult climb (e.g. with ropes)while "hiking" is a type of walking up the mountain at a relaxing pace. If you have to hold on with your hands, you're not hiking.
Here is the difference between climbing a mountain and hiking:
>To climb a mountain is something very extreme done using special equipment. This mostly refers an extremely steep mountainside
>To go hiking means to travel up a mountain. To walk the slopes, trails, pathways, etc. You could say, "to go hiking to the mountains".

To "climb a mountain" carries the sense of a difficult climb (e.g. with ropes)while "hiking" is a type of walking up the mountain at a relaxing pace. If you have to hold on with your hands, you're not hiking.