Quandary Peak

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 10/11/2026, By: JerJerBinks
Info: Higher on the ridge there's small amounts of snow. Not inconsequential imo. Certainly possible without traction, but I would have retreated without micro spikes. Cracked wall was pretty clear, but the second crux had some snow. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/9/2026, By: ArthurBraunstein
Info: Perfect conditions for a hike up the standard route. Dry rock and dirt. No snow or ice. Started at 5:30 AM. Maybe five cars in the lot. May 30 or 40 other hikers, round 10 on the summit at the same time as me. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 10/3/2026, By: 14er101
Info: Very little snow until the ridge, and still very little snow after that. Microspikes might be nice to carry, but definitely not necessary. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/3/2026, By: dquinn
Info: East Ridge route was completely free of snow up to about 13,900', then a few small patches here and there that were easily avoided with a little rock-stepping. Final ridge walk to the summit had a few bits of snow/ice I couldn't easily go around, but nothing that would have justified bringing extra traction. 30s (F) and very windy at the top; glad I brought a puffy layer and gloves. All in all good weather and great visibility. Dozens of hikers on Quandary today, so it's not out of busy season yet. Especially with the leaves turning. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/30/2026, By: wolfgangstiller
Info: The route is completely dry. No snow anywhere near the route yet. Hardly anyone on the mountain today 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 9/20/2026, By: Climberdude27
Info: Light levels of snow accumulation on the west ridge made the scrambling more difficult, great day overall. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/20/2026, By: taylorjoshua1
Info: Surprising amount of people for a Monday morning but I guess that's normal for Colorado Summer. Started at 6:30am. Nice and cool going up. Warmed up a lot coming down, got back to the car around noon. Wish I had started earlier for the coolness and fewer people. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 7/18/2026, By: EvanKBlack
Info: Great day, good conditions, fun rock, though the basin was wetter than I imagined, as were some of the talus higher up (melting overnight frost? remnants of rain in the area from the day before?)

I think there were maybe 8 of us total on WR on a mid-summer Saturday, quite a contrast to the conga line of the standard route. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/1/2026, By: sethjameslittle
Info: Quandary's trail was in fantastic condition. No snow was on the trail, but there were a few mountain goats. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/20/2026, By: afcolorado14
Info: There was one snowfield we crossed in the basin, we put on spikes but didn’t feel axes were necessary, snow was hard and there were fairly deep footprints through the snowfield. This was the only time we crossed the snow and it probably could have been avoided. The ridge itself was completely snow free and gorgeous! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2026, By: Cogwheel4755
Info: No spikes needed. Maybe 30 steps total on the snow. About 10 cars at 5 am. A few spots left at 9 am. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/9/2026, By: dmorris3
Info: I did it with no spikes, poles, ice ax, etc. The conditions are doable if you are comfortable with a little extra scrambling. I stayed left at the first gully and then stayed left again before I hit the ridge. I'd say do this now if you're comfortable with
a. a bit of snow
b. class 4 scrambling
c. finding easy lines 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2026, By: zootloopz
Info: Still a bit of snow but no traction needed with careful footing when going from Quandary standard to Fletcher. Saw at least 15 people along the ridge while descending. Blue Lakes Basin still has a decent amount of snow, expect to posthole. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/7/2026, By: gmarcotte
Info: Some steep snowfields still remain when going from the lower to upper basin and then ascending to the ridge. Bring at least spikes and an axe and get an early start or you'll be postholing -- I'd aim to get up to the ridge by 7am with current conditions.

The rest of the route only has avoidable or easy snow. All of the scrambling and the two cruxes are dry.

The first 2/3 of the ridge is simple class 2 with lots of cairns to help with routefinding. If you want to add more scrambling, it looked like the ridge direct would go on the initial difficulties with some Class 4 (didn't try it myself). 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/4/2026, By: dougrz
Info: As below, short sections of snow with no issues to bypass or walk over. Parking lot wise, arrived at 4:30 to 6 others. At 6, there were 20, with plenty of space. At 12:30, still plenty of space. I expected the days here before the reservation date kickoff to be busier. Not so.