It is not unusual for artists in Colorado to choose the Rocky Mountains as a subject, but Percy Hagerman occupies a special place, in his words, as one of "the first Colorado men to climb extensively just for the sake of climbing" (Notes on Mountaineering in the Elk Mountains, 1908-1910). Along with his companion Harold Clark, he was the first to climb Maroon Peak and Capitol Peak, and he reached the summit of North Maroon Peak on his own. Both Hagerman Peak and Pass bear his name. From one of the state's wealthiest families, Hagerman adhered to then accepted tenet that success went to the mentally and physically fittest, with his college athletics meant to forge a captain of industry. As a prominent Colorado Springs businessman and town father, he was affiliated with the Broadmoor Art Academy in the 20s and 30s and became President of the board of the then new Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1939 until his death in 1950.

As a boy of thirteen, he went with his tuberculosis-stricken father for two years to live in Europe. Residing near Milan, Italy, young Percy was able to tour the galleries of France and Italy, preferring the grandiose works of Michelangelo and Rubens, as well as the Alps in Switzerland. Late-nineteenth-century Continental tourism almost required visits to both, a cultural requirement in part attributable to English critic John Ruskin, who asserted, "Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery."

With the elder Hagerman's health improved, the family relocated from Milwaukee in 1884 to Colorado Springs, where the patriarch could benefit from the dry climate and fresh mountain air. The town became the base of lucrative development and investment in mining and railroads, which young Percy joined upon completion of studies at Cornell and one year of Yale Law School in 1891. His enterprises included the Pecos Valley Railway Company, the Mollie Gibson Consolidated Mining and Milling Company of Aspen, and the Isabella Gold Mining Company in Cripple Creek, and his father eventually sold him all his business interests, including the Colorado Midland Railroad. His marriage to Eleanor Lowry of Minneapolis whose family was connected to street railways was a fitting social match. The couple and their three children lived in a grand house still known as the Hagerman House, which daughter Elinor would let grow wild after City officials closed the nearby irrigation canal. [Accounts of what is called the "Grudge Mansion" appear in Stephanie Waters; Ghost of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak, 2012.]

Hagerman was a star athlete at Cornell, most notably as a member of the winning rowing team, and the campus' Percy Field is named after him, due to his father's $7000 contribution to its establishment. With his mining interests in Aspen, Hagerman further tested his physical prowess by scaling the peaks of the nearby Elk Mountains with Clark. In his book about his experiences, he described the area around Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak: "These peaks are among the finest in the Rockies for a number of reasons. They have big streams and fine large lakes; they are rugged, steep and forbidding in appearance; some of them are richly colored; and finally, the upper stretches have not been scarred with mining claims." While benefiting from the region's mineral deposits, Hagerman wanted to look at the mountains for their inspirational and aesthetic value. When he turned to his artistic side studying lithography at the Fine Arts Center in 1940, he depicted his beloved mountains as a daunting, jagged presence. While one can discern recognizable features, the main emphasis is on the stunning uplift that would have challenged Hagerman decades before. Whether his heart was more in art than in mining and railroads, no one can say, but his interpretation of the Rockies certainly bespeaks a man who in more ways than one made it to the top of the mountain.