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| Report Type |
Full |
| Peak(s) |
Quandary Peak - 14,272 feet
|
| Date Posted |
07/19/2010 |
| Date Climbed |
07/18/2010 |
| Author |
sclarson |
| Sunrise on Quandary |
My buddy and I were discussing the idea of climbing Quandary, and when he suggested doing it for sunrise, I couldn't refuse. We're both in a band and had a gig the night before, but we figured we're young and could just pull and all nighter and stick it out until we got home to crash later. We left Denver at 11pm Saturday night. We stopped shortly after leaving Parker to get some energy drinks to get through the night (great decision, until we started hiking...). Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend energy drinks before a hike again.
We started hiking at 1:30am with our headlamps knowing we had plenty of time, but were still moving surprisingly quickly. At 2:45am my gps read 13,600ft. So, because we were tired and were close to the top, we decided to slow our pace and enjoy the stars. None of those pictures turned out great, but man were they pretty. Before much longer, it was 4am and we were on the summit. Note: it was very cold and windy. I brought my puffy expecting it to be cold, but I was surprised at just how cold it was. My friend's thermometer read 28, not including wind chill. So, we hunkered down in the first wind shelter, and I got out my pocket rocket. We decided to bring tea and hot chocolate to toast to on the summit over sunrise, and the extra weight was well worth it to us.
The sun peaked out right around 530am or so, and it was easily the prettiest sunrise he or I have ever seen. He told me he was starting to feel sick (probably altitude sickness) so after a few departing pictures we headed back down. Niether of us signed the registry because we didn't want to fuss with the thing with our gloves on and figured pictures of the benchmark were good enough for us. It was pretty cool to watch the sunrise on our descent and see first light on the peak/valley/saddle on our way down. We got down in about the same time as going up after saying hello to our mountain goat friends and talking to all the happy hikers going up, and were back at our car at 8am. We discussed stopping for food but due to our level of energy we picked up a few more red bulls in Georgetown and booked it home. Pretty tiring trip in all, but definitely worth the lack of sleep to see that sunrise.
Images of the sunrise and the hike are below. Happy trails!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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