During his college years, Ma Teng-yueh was in the mountaineering club. The destination for his first climb was the Ssumakussu village of the Atayal tribe in Hsinchu County's Chienshih Rural Township.
馬騰岳曾在大學時代參加登山社，第一次爬山，就到新竹縣尖石鄉泰雅人居住的「司馬庫斯」部落。