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My first winter ascent of a 14er mountain at age 74
Quandary Peak Summit (14,265 ft.)
Left Winter Trailhead at 7:45 am
Returned to TH at 5:45 pm
Ascent: 3,648 ft
RT: 7.0 miles
On Happy Valentine's Day, I drove to Quandary Peak Winter Trailhead for my first attempt at a winter ascent of a 14er mountain. I originally planned to try out a winter hike all the way to a tree line with no definite plan to summit the peak. It depended on several factors: a pleasing weather, no wind stronger than 20 mph and a time window. Leaving the TH around 7:45 am, I got on a well-set trench using trekking poles and microspikes, thanks to those dozen hikers who ascended before me early in the morning. When I finally arrived at the tree line, there was a perfect winter weather with 20-30 deg temperature and a gentle breeze. Then I looked at my watch saying 10 o'clock. I decided to give my first ever winter summit a go. It required some hard work and I managed to get to the 13k ft point where I had turned around due to some threatening clouds floating over the peak two summers ago. I felt great even though I had several stops along the trail to catch my breath. The weather was still cooperating with me. So I continued my ascent to the peak. At 2:15 pm, I finally got on the summit of Quandary Peak at age 74. There was still a gentle wind blowing around. Only bad thing that happened to me was a loss of my mitten. While I was sitting on some small rock, I took out my right mitten and left it on the ground so I could get a drink. All of a sudden, a wind gust blew it away and the mitten was flying over a cliff. I could not recover it.
There were only three of us at the top after some other climbers were gone back to the TH. There were a young man and his girlfriend or (wife) preparing to ski down. After enjoying a magnificent view of snow-capped mountains for a while, I descended all the way back to my car solo. As I was approaching the tree line, I slid three times even though the microspikes were still on my snow boots. Thanks to the snow providing some cushion, I was not hurt. Since I was down, I did glissading a short way. Finally I arrived at the trailhead at 5:45 pm as the sun was doing down.
I was glad that I made it. I agree with someone who said that a winter climb was a lot easier than a summer climb for Quandary Peak since I already experienced them.
Quandary Peak is my 6th 14er mountain that I have scaled to date.
Quandary Peak dated Jan 23rd after a heavy snowfall
Hiking toward the tree line
Near 11,800 feet altiude
Finally out of the tree line past 12,000 ft altitude
me in the background of a solo hiker climbing toward the summit
North View
East view - you could see some hikers down
West view of Quandary Peak
me at 12,700 ft altitude. You can see a mountain goat in the background
me past 13,000 ft level
some climbers hiking toward the summit
You can see a hiker hiking up the East Ridge
Final pitch to the summit past 13,700 ft level
me standing on the summit
me showing off a victory sign at age 74
South view of three 14er mountains from the summit
some snow looking grayish
me walking past 5 mountain goats busy eating "cans"
hiking toward the tree line
me with Quandary Peak in the background on Feb. 7th
me sitting at 13,200 feet altitude on August 23, 2013
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
A winter ascent of any 14er is a great accomplishment (and let’s not even get into the age issue). Keep on trekking since you only have 52 or so 14ers remaining! :)
What a memorable Valentine’s day. While others are out spending money and confined indoors you are proving that the sky’s the limit, out there ’gettin’ some’ on the mountain!
Your trip report made me smile...
Congrats on your summit. Had to be sweeter than chocolate to stand up there !You’ve got me by 11 years: coming out this summer and you will be my motivator to press on and get high on several 14ers. Thanks for the inspiration!
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