June 5, East Ridge, Quandary Peak, CO
6/15/11
US elsewhere
1702
3
Quandary Peak, elevation 14,265 feet, is located at the southern end of the Tenmile Range in Summit Country, Colorado. The TH is located just off Colorado 9 not far from Breckenridge. The East ridge is very much visible from highway and it reminded me of a slightly steeper, 4 thousand foot higher version of the Muir snow field complete with crowds on a sunny day.
We car camped, started early, and made the summit in just over 3 hours (appx 3400 feet elevation gain). Hardly a breeze the entire way but muted sunshine due to a fire in the area. Snow was relatively firm on the way up so we booted to about 11,500 feet. With a couple short exceptions, skinned all the way to the summit. Skiing by 11:00 and due to the east facing nature of the climb, the sun had softened things up nicely. Skied maybe 90% of the way down to the TH. Upper 2500 feet or so was exceptionally nice with spring conditions on wide open slopes. The rest of the ski down was via a convoluted route thru the trees that kind of followed the summer hiking trail.
2 down, 48 or so to go. There are a few, Crestone being at the top of the list, that I won't be doing. Yikes!
We car camped, started early, and made the summit in just over 3 hours (appx 3400 feet elevation gain). Hardly a breeze the entire way but muted sunshine due to a fire in the area. Snow was relatively firm on the way up so we booted to about 11,500 feet. With a couple short exceptions, skinned all the way to the summit. Skiing by 11:00 and due to the east facing nature of the climb, the sun had softened things up nicely. Skied maybe 90% of the way down to the TH. Upper 2500 feet or so was exceptionally nice with spring conditions on wide open slopes. The rest of the ski down was via a convoluted route thru the trees that kind of followed the summer hiking trail.
2 down, 48 or so to go. There are a few, Crestone being at the top of the list, that I won't be doing. Yikes!
Nice. Yanna and I got up there in '92, must have been a little earlier as there was more snow on the lower ridge. It was a nice intro to big mountain touring for a couple of New England telemarkers. And some locals took pity on us and showed us the quick way back to the car as the thunderstorms headed for us from across the valley. Looks like that quick was was mostly rock as of this weekend (we had to drop skiers left of the ridge for a short traverse before cutting back around to the south side where we'd parked).
Someone got badly injured and needed a rescue that same day skiing one of the steep chutes further east, which if memory serves drop down to a lake or reservoir.
Someone got badly injured and needed a rescue that same day skiing one of the steep chutes further east, which if memory serves drop down to a lake or reservoir.
Hi Jim- yes, the Cristo Couloir is the route you're referring to. It was still frozen when we left, and we were parked at a different trail-head, but it looked inviting from the top ... reminded me of a 2500 foot version of the Nisqually Chutes:
http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=quan2&peak=Quandary+Peak
Take care,
http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=quan2&peak=Quandary+Peak
Take care,
Excellent! This was the 1st 14er I ever did (and my first mountain in CO too) in 2003. Sadly, I wasn't skiing at that point in my life yet, but all my buddies were! Gladly, I met a lifelong friend that day, probably because I wasn't on skis.
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