"Quarter Peak"

Route: Cataract Gulch
Posted On: 7/9/2024, By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: I found this peak to be a lot more straightforward than I was expecting. Trail takes you to 11,500, and grassy slopes take you to 13,200. Then somewhat loose talus on maybe class 3- rock takes you to the false summit. Staying mostly ridge proper takes you right over to the true summit. The traverse to Half was also a lot more straightforward than others have said before. There is a 100% grass route between Quarter's east basin and the Quarter/Half saddle, and you never drop below 12,600. From the foot of a rock glacier at 12,600 east of Quarter, go up a grass slope to 12,800 and start contouring south. A game trail will take you across a steeper, rockier slope and onto more grassy meadows. Contour at 13,000 until another game trail takes you across a steep slope down to 12,900 just below the Quarter/Half saddle. Take Half's east slopes route to the summit. The east slopes of Half were conversely more difficult than I was expecting. Roach says it can be kept at class 2+ with careful routefinding, but I never saw any cairns and just sort of cowboyed my way up the first gulley I thought looked good. Some easy class 4 at the top paid off and deposited me on the summit plateau, however. Very easy descent down Half's south ridge, then very long trail back to the trailhead. One of the most beautiful areas in the state. I love it here. 

Route: Cataract Gulch to SE Ridge to Dead Squirrel Couloi
Posted On: 5/29/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started from Cataract Gulch TH around 5 AM. Thanks merrion13 for the tracks up that road, once snow started around low 10K, was very challenging due to numerous deadfall crossings in soft snow, but the tracks helped. The creek crossing was very stout for the grade, as the logs were frozen. I got on my hands and knees and used the frozen knubs as handholds, and managed to keep feet dry amazingly. Then broke out into alpine around 11,3, and it became cruiser class 2 up the SE ridge. I did not originally think I was summitting Quarter peak, as I was just planning to do dead squirrel couloir, but saw the saddle between Quarter and unnamed, unranked, unexisting 13,299, and assumed the couloir was off quarter to the Left. Took a fairly mellow snow line just left of the saddle, gained the ridge. To gain Quarter peak, found a snow couloir around the right side of the summit ridge, which gained the ridge, then walked on easy class 2 mixed snow / rock, and followed steep snow to the summit. At this point, I kept going past the summit as I thought the couloir was up here, but never found it. Finally, headed down toward unexisting 13,299, as my topo indicated it might take off there. By that point, visibility was very low, and I checked out multiple points too far E, and they cliffed out totally. I almost gave up, but managed to find the line. Downclimbed 100 ft in ski boots and clipped in. Snow was bulletproof for the first half due to NW aspect and lack of sun. Starting to get suncupped, but it was low angle so I could mostly jump turn, though at the choke in the middle, I had to cheat and side step due to huge chicken heads and rocks and bulletproof snow, and narrow conditions. About halfway down, started softening and was great fun. At the bottom, there is about a 10 foot cliff, so I followed the beta to go left, but it was not continuous, eventually traversed back right, and made it a couple hundred feet above the valley floor. The creek crossing required full boot soaking, as I found no workable crossing. The road walk was easy, but there is significant deadfall, so that will have to be cleared before vehicles can make it much beyond Cataract Gulch TH. 

Route: Catararch up, Dead Squirrel down
Posted On: 5/19/2024, By: artemavovk
Info: patchy snow all the way up, if you start early you can boot all the way up with some traction; creek crossings are wet, but doable skiableish from summit, couloir was messy, but got better with softer snow; a few sharks but skiable all the way to ledges that drop you off in a mess of trees and a tree dam across the creek. 

Route: South slopes ascent, Dead Squirrel descent
Posted On: 4/20/2024, By: SnowAlien
Info: After 2 character buildings days, I was up for a ski redemption and decided to check out the DS couloir. Had a good look at it from Campbell Creek peak the day before. Was able to skin all the way to 13,400ft on the south side. The summit is so much better with snow (when I did it in dry conditions it felt spooky with all the loose rock). Ski descent is a bit contrived since I had to ski down the shoulder and up and over (with a short dry descent) into Dead Squirrel. But what a great line it is. With extra 1.5 hour detour for the summit, timed the snow perfectly. Dropped in after 1pm, and the top was still a bit firm. There's still a bit of powder on the left (shaded side) and corn on the right side. The apron was getting very soft, especially given the poor freeze below 10k the night before. There was minor avy debris towards the bottom. Can see skiing the line again sometime. Road avy debris has been cleared out, but I may have collapsed the last snowbridge over the creek on the way out (but there're still plenty of logs in that area). Camera got condensation and wasn't cooperating (should have dropped it in the creek on the last day of the ski trip instead of the first one). 4,200 ft, ~8 miles and just over 8 hours (with an 1.5 hr detour to tag the summit). 

Route: From Half Peak
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: This was a complete slog from Half. We descended on a south east rib with a few class 3 moves and had to navigate around some snow on this side. Going over to Quarter involves losing a ton of elevation and regaining only to lose it again. We had to ascend to a ridge then drop low into the basin beneath the impressive ridge of Quarter. We then found some social trails to ascend to the ridge. We dropped low beneath the false summit to avoid a snow field and crossed one patch just beneath the summit. Loose talus everywhere. We navigated back up to the ridge then dropped down on some grassy slopes connecting to the cataract lake trail which added miles but not suffering on talus. Quarter on its own from this trail would have much a better trek. Photos show these two approximate route options. 

Route: From Cataract Gulch
Posted On: 4/2/2023, By: Will_E
Info: Summitted Quarter from Cataract Gulch today. There was a short lived trench that stopped about a half mile from the TH, from there I broke trail in snowshoes until well past treeline. I'll rate my trench/routefinding a solid B+ today, I was mostly able to follow the Cataract gulch trail, other than cutting a few switchbacks. Snow was pretty good today, minimum of postholing, even in the afternoon on the way down. I used crampons/ice axe to ascend the steep slope to false summit, and again to get up the final slope to true summit. The snow was really great, fortunately, because those last 2 slopes are pretty steep. Nice day. 

Route: Cataract
Posted On: 10/2/2022, By: angry
Info: Was dry to summit, conditions changed overnight with snowfall. 

Route: From Cataract Gulch
Posted On: 6/1/2022, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: Needed microspikes to safely cross the iced-over logs on the Cataract Gulch trail in the early morning cold. No issues getting to the north ridge, but one steep ribbon of snow is still choking the gully below the false summit. Everything is super loose and I would advise a helmet, even when dry. Managed to get around the snow with some short Class 3. Should be better in a week or so. For descent, chose to drop down the northwest gully between true and false summit and contour from there. Still very loose, but no snow and no exposure. Was able to work back over to the ascent route below the crux in a matter of a few minutes on rolling rocks. Saw nobody on the peak or trail all day. Beautiful day! Half looks stunning from Quarter! 

Route: From Cataract Lake
Posted On: 8/19/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: From Cataract Lake I headed northwest across tundra and through willows. The willows weren't as bad as they appeared from a distance. I stayed west/climber's left of the various cliffs on the way, staying on tundra until about 13,200 feet. I then dropped down north of a cliff on chalky rock into the basin east of "Quarter"'s impressive south ridge. This basin was full of awful, loose talus and various ups and downs on lobes of the small rock glacier contained within it. It was slow and tedious hiking and basic scrambling to gain the north ridge and cross over to the west side of it; it would be easiest to contour around it entirely staying on tundra as much as possible before crossing to the west side. Once there there are two options - stay low on steep, very loose talus until you're below a large notch just north of the summit, then scramble up to the summit (Class 2, maybe a few moves of Class 2+, all very loose) or climb up to the ridge crest as soon as possible on extremely loose rock with small ledges (Class 2+ with a few moves of Class 3), then traverse the ridge direct across the notch (Class 2) and up to the summit. I took the latter option up and the former down. Both sucked with loose junk. Once back down the ridge I didn't take my route back through the basin, instead staying on tundra until I got back to the Cataract Gulch trail. This was about 800-1,000 feet of extra elevation gain but saved me the trouble of hiking back across the junk in the basin. A thought having done it this way: "Quarter" is best done looped with Half Peak and Point 13,164 starting and ending at Square Gulch and Cuba Gulch (or vice versa). If done by itself like this from Cataract Gulch it's either best done as a day trip via the grassy east slopes, and if going to Cataract Lake it might be easiest to drop the camp pack, hike up "Quarter", and return to your pack before finishing the backpack to the lake. Again, this is a bit more vert but avoids the horrible rock in the basin east of the peak. 

Route: East slopes
Posted On: 4/3/2021, By: bmcqueen
Info: Went from Cataract TH and found a decent trench most of the way to our turn-off. We still needed snowshoes as the snow was getting soft. From the turn-off to Quarter, the snow became more firm and supportive. We went up steep snow to the false summit, down climbed off that, then climbed the final steep snow slope to the summit. Crampons and axes were needed for the false and true summit snow climbs. 

Route: From Cataract Gulch
Posted On: 10/19/2020, By: WildWanderer
Info: Summer conditions. Small areas of avoidable snow on north side. 

Route: Cataract Gulch Trailhead
Posted On: 7/20/2020, By: JasonKline
Info: Summer conditions. Snow totally avoidable. 

Route: E slopes to N ridge
Posted On: 6/27/2020, By: d_baker
Info: Started at 5am, "bright eyed and bushy tailed!" ;-) No problems on Cataract Gulch trail. First creek crossing was shallow enough to barely rock hop. Squirellysquirrel just walked through the creek. After/at top of Cataract Falls, the trail crosses back to E side but we stayed on the W side on an older trail, and it worked out and we reconnected with trail at/near terminal of rock glacier. Cont. on standard trail a little farther, until we could see clear line up east slope of "Quarter Pk" /13,674' and then took the path of least resistance. No snow. Came across a fresh baby elk kill, and an adult female elk, which appeared to have possibly broken her neck, probably trying to defend calve from predators. Likely within the last 24hrs. The adult elk had yet to be eaten, and was not stiff yet. An interesting find. Anyway... Gained N ridge, and started our ascent. There was a couple of gullies with snow, and we crossed one short section at the top of snow, and then hugged rock in between snow moat. A little tight but it worked. Turned a corner a did a short easy but loose scramble to get to ridge proper. From there, we went to false summit and also noticed a lower "trail" on W slopes from where we came up. Descended into notch between twin summits, and continued S to true summit. No issues. A couple spots of minor class 3, some loose rock on ledges to be mindful of. Returned to notch between twin summits, and contoured around W slopes back to the N ridge, and descended E slopes. Started at 5am, summit by 11:30. Back to TH by 4ish I think. 4000'+ gain. No need for axe or traction, imo. I carried my light axe but never considered getting it out. We did carry helmets and wore them on ridge to summit. 

Route: From cataract
Posted On: 7/12/2019, By: cottonmountaineering
Info: Summer conditions, some snow on the upper mountain but can walk around the steeper parts and do not need any snow equipment 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/12/2018, By: HikerGuy
Info: Traversed across the east slopes from Half Peak to join the standard route up from Cataract Gulch. I used doggler's GPX track and it was spot on. Once I reached the ridge I found the easy Class 2+ passage on the west side blocked by a snow field. I didn't have my ice axe. I considered what appeared to be more difficult Class 3/4 options, but didn't have my helmet. So being solo and ill prepared, I retreated. I imagine the snow field will be gone in a week or two.