Bierstadt, Quandary, Lincoln, and Oxford conditions + roads

[benners]

I live in Washington and am coming to Colorado (Colorado Springs) for the Thanksgiving week. My birthday is on Wednesday and I have had my sights set on skiing a 14er all summer.

Currently I am planning on skiing Quandry, but the conditions look dubious. Benners, were you able to skin most of the way, or did you carry your skis up? I can ski around rocks no problem, but are there are a lot of hidden rocks under the snow? Is it possible to ski most of the descent? Should I even bother bringing my skis from Washington and plan on hiking instead?

If you think Quandary will destroy skis on Wednesday or will be 3000 ft of hiking for 300 ft of skiing, could you recommend a different birthday-tour for an out-of-towner that has better conditions?

Thanks much,

You can skin from treeline to where the ridge begins its final stretch up to the summit, so you'll have skis on your back for probably 75% of the climb. If you've had your sights set on skiing a 14er all summer, then I think you should bring em and ski it. You will be able to ski off the summit down through the upper East Bowl and only remove your skis maybe once for a short distance. Then you'll have to hoof them back up to the ridge (but you would likely have to in ideal conditions anyway) and ski a few hundred vertical towards the lower East Bowl in thin conditions, you'll likely hit several rocks here but you may get lucky. The lower East Bowl will lend decent turns down to treeline, at which point you'll have to carry them on your back save for a hundred yard stretch of hard pack in the trees that you could ski if you wanted to save some time, the rest of the route below treeline is either dirt or super thin. So yes you will be able to ski most of the route above treeline but it will be boney. My comments about the peak as a whole not being skiable yet are mainly aimed at those who can come back in a month and ski from summit to car cleanly, if you've had your heart set on this and you're coming out from Washington I'd say do it.

[NE_Dad]

So, fair to say that next week, microspikes up high will serve me better than snowshoes down low on Quandary?

[Fiemus]

So, fair to say that next week, microspikes up high will serve me better than snowshoes down low on Quandary?

I actually found microspikes most useful below treeline when I was up there a week ago. There are patches of very slick ice that form in the shade of the trees that almost put me on my back a couple of times (when I made the mistake of removing my Yaktrax on the way down).... so yes, for the East Ridge trail I would recommend microspikes before snow shoes.