Quandary Peak Trip Report 05/09/2015

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Quandary Peak - 14,272 feet
Date Posted	05/09/2015
Date Climbed	05/03/2015
Author	Tim A

In Defense of Quandary (Cristo Ascent/Glissade)
In spite of the forecast for poor weather over much of the Rockies for the first weekend in May, I needed a short road-trip to get a mountain fix that would carry me into my summer break. Up from Texas I drove on Friday, planning on getting two summits on the weekend before returning. The previous weekend in CO saw most of the mountains pick up at least a foot of snow, so my plan to gain ascents via couloirs (especially ones which usually melt out by June when I am free to come up) was tentative and I was afraid I'd be stuck doing more winter-safe routes like Elbert's East Ridge if conditions didn't permit something more exciting. My original goal was Humboldt's SE flank gully, but the forecast called for ten inches of snow for Humboldt's area on Friday, and during my drive up on CO69 to Westcliffe, I confirmed it was getting a lot of new powder. I scratched my plans to backpack down the South Colony Lakes road and headed further north towards the Sawatch, which looked more clear from Westcliffe. The drive up 285/91 to Buena Vista from Salida was exceptional, with the titans of the Sawatch completely covered in snow and with clearish skies overhead. My backup plan, Columbia via the SW couloir, seemed to be in. I set up camp below the TH and planned on getting out at 2am so as to cover the entire approach in the dark and hopefully be off the mountain before lunch to avoid postholing. The best laid plans...I overslept an hour, had a little bit of rain that evening, and found no trench and very slushy snow even pre-dawn past the TH leading into Horn Fork basin. Heavy overcast overnight prevented a solid freeze. Even though I was feeling good, I was uncomfortable attempting Columbia's couloir alone (all attempts at partnering up fell through), and with the snow that unsupported even before sunrise, I just didn't feel comfortable attempting the couloir alone, so at 4am, I bailed and turned around. I hedged everything on finding a safer alternative for Sunday, sort of making up my mind to do Elbert's East Ridge. With literally the entire day still ahead of me, I scouted the TH for Elbert and found it packed with cars (indicating a trench was likely-always a positive thing). Still bummed about losing out a chance to climb a couloir, I then drove around the entire tenmile range to investigate Quandary from the dam and see if there was any wet-slide activity. This also gave me the opportunity to get a lot of pictures of the peaks with more snow on them than I've ever seen, so the drive was well-worth it. Until I got to Quandary at around 2pm, which was masked in blowing snow and whiteout. I took a nap at the parking lot above Blue Lakes for an hour in my car, woke up to the same conditions, and called it off, dejectedly deciding to again set up camp near Buena Vista and "just" do Elbert's East Ridge the following day. Couloir climbing solo on a route I couldn't visually scout exceeded my comfort levels. During that depressing drive back to BV, I changed my mind again, deciding that if Cristo turned out sketchy, I could always just bail and then do Northstar via the east ridge instead. This is the entire run-around to me finally arriving at the dam at 6am Sunday morning to go for Quandary again. I share all this to remind readers that for out-of-towners who can't just try again the following weekend should they pick the "wrong" route on a given day, conditions reports and posts are worth gold on this site, and it was such a post on the FB group from a snowboarder that ultimately committed me to Quandary. He posted some pictures of his ride down the couloir and I could tell by the lighting that he was coming down during a later part of the morning than I had planned to, so I figured it would probably be safe for the attempt. Quandary Peak. Often maligned for the crowds it draws and the inexperience of hikers found on it, it nevertheless has a special place in my heart, as it was my first 14er, and I didn't get in with a hundred friends in summertime, but solo in calendar winter back in 2012. That got me hooked, and the experience of getting that first summit in winter and with snow took some of the enjoyment out of simple 14er hiking during the summer months. I enjoy the cold, the isolation, the scenery, and the additional challenges climbing in snow brings. This has a natural progression leading to couloir climbing, which I find more aesthetically pleasing than ascents via standard routes for some reason. It just feels more "mountainey" and worth my trip. As with many of my other trips, I've set the ascent and descent via glissade to music and this does a great job of showcasing both the climb and glissade conditions from last weekend better than words or pictures can. Most excitingly, I found to my chagrin that youtube blocked the video upon upload due to copyright issues with the first track, so I found and wrote the copyright manager of the Record Label and he actually wrote me back and unblocked it! It's remarkable when one encounters generous persons who are reasonable with making exceptions to their "playbook" so to speak. As with my other videos, the ascent is set to choral music, in this case Aarvo Part's "The Deer's Cry," conveying my Sunday-morning emotions and the peacefulness of the setting, and contrasting with Queen's "Put Out the Fire" for the descent. Arrived at the parking area at 545am and started right up. Another benefit of going solo? You don't have to wait around for the group to finalize their gear checks that you did the previous evening! From the road up towards the dam. From the dam. Alpenglow hitting northstar. I passed about four or five cars in the lot for the East Ridge on my way up the road, so I knew that side would be seeing some traffic, but I didn't expect to find two vans parked at Blue Lakes already. One of them had several beer cans tossed outside it sitting in what looked like an attempt at a trash fire in the middle of the lot, which was unsuccessful. I parked and headed up the road, enjoying the views one never tires of. At the dam, I could sit down on it and put on my crampons, as there was continuous snow from there to the summit from what I could see. I contoured west about a quarter mile before beginning my ascent directly into the gully. The ascent itself took 3 hours. My out-of-shape self needed nine hours to summit Quandary on my first hike back in 2012, so it was really gratifying to see my training at low-elevation has paid off so substantially (all thanks to Steve House and his training manual). I was on hard neve for most of the ride up, with thick overcast keeping the sun covered so temperatures remained cool. A few hundred feet from the summit, the clouds finally burned off and the snow immediately began softening, but at that elevation it stayed firm enough for me to easily gain traction with the crampons. There were also several sets of steps kicked into the couloir in various lines, as well as lines from skiers, boarders, and glissaders coming down. A solid bootpack on the far west side of the couloir (more on top of the rib forming the gully) was also present, and seemed to be the line everyone else took coming up behind me. I opted for the center, feeling comfortable enough with the snowpack and my own strength to try for the steepest lines wherever possible. I'm planning on attempting Dead Dog and Castle/Conundrum via their couloirs this June so taking the "harder" line on Quandary seemed like a reasonable training method. Some shots of the ascent. Looking back down at the dam. A party of two climbers starting up the couloir below. Upper third. Looking east. As I arrived on the summit, one other guy was also arriving from the East Ridge, but he didn't longer for long. I took some pictures of him with his camera and he headed back down, leaving me with my second time completely alone on the summit of one of the most crowded 14ers in CO. I stayed for about half an hour, waiting for the snow below to cook more for my planned glissade, and enjoying the solitude and views. They simply aren't the same in July and August when brown replaces white as the dominant color of much of the Rockies. Summit view south. Summit view north. Summit view east. Summit view northwest. Atlantic Peak, so much less inspiring to look at, yet so much more fun to climb. The descent was a little less by the books. I plunge-stepped about a hundred feet down from the summit before sitting and repacking my crampons. From here, I waited for a pair of climbers and a solo snowboarder to move past me before starting the glissade down. As the video shows, the upper portion of the couloir was not the best for arresting. I'm not sure if it was the storm snow from the previous afternoon or just a melt-freeze crust on top, but I had significant trouble maintaining a steady and controllable descent rate and opted for short bursts followed by immediate arrests (which weren't immediate). I ultimately opted to just ride down on my stomach in the arrest position, as from here I could more easily put on the breaks if necessary. After losing a few hundred feet of elevation, the snow became more agreeable and I allowed myself to build up some speed as I tore down the gully. Total descent time was about 25 minutes. One more reason for loving snow routes... I've read about the pair of climbers who ascended Everest via the "Great Couloir" and then found it in decent conditions to glissade down, getting them down 10,000ft in an hour's time. That's the way to do Everest. Some additional pics of the couloir from the dam and TH and CO9. From CO9, with weather coming back in. Zoomed on the couloir. From near the dam. People can say what they'd like about Quandary, but on both my experiences on it so far, I've found it an extraordinarily beautiful mountain with great ease of access, offerings of solitude, and with stellar views and conditions. If I ever talk any friends of mine from Texas into attempting snow or winter climbing, I'm sure I would take them on Quandary's East Ridge for their first winter outting or the Cristo for their first snow-climb, and I'm sure I'll repeat both of these routes at some point without complaint. In the meantime though, for the next four months or so, I'll avoid that mountain completely as it gets hammered by those chaco-wearing adventurers in their jeans and cotton t-shirts. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

In Defense of Quandary (Cristo Ascent/Glissade)

In spite of the forecast for poor weather over much of the Rockies for the first weekend in May, I needed a short road-trip to get a mountain fix that would carry me into my summer break. Up from Texas I drove on Friday, planning on getting two summits on the weekend before returning.

The previous weekend in CO saw most of the mountains pick up at least a foot of snow, so my plan to gain ascents via couloirs (especially ones which usually melt out by June when I am free to come up) was tentative and I was afraid I'd be stuck doing more winter-safe routes like Elbert's East Ridge if conditions didn't permit something more exciting.

My original goal was Humboldt's SE flank gully, but the forecast called for ten inches of snow for Humboldt's area on Friday, and during my drive up on CO69 to Westcliffe, I confirmed it was getting a lot of new powder. I scratched my plans to backpack down the South Colony Lakes road and headed further north towards the Sawatch, which looked more clear from Westcliffe. The drive up 285/91 to Buena Vista from Salida was exceptional, with the titans of the Sawatch completely covered in snow and with clearish skies overhead. My backup plan, Columbia via the SW couloir, seemed to be in. I set up camp below the TH and planned on getting out at 2am so as to cover the entire approach in the dark and hopefully be off the mountain before lunch to avoid postholing.

The best laid plans...I overslept an hour, had a little bit of rain that evening, and found no trench and very slushy snow even pre-dawn past the TH leading into Horn Fork basin. Heavy overcast overnight prevented a solid freeze. Even though I was feeling good, I was uncomfortable attempting Columbia's couloir alone (all attempts at partnering up fell through), and with the snow that unsupported even before sunrise, I just didn't feel comfortable attempting the couloir alone, so at 4am, I bailed and turned around. I hedged everything on finding a safer alternative for Sunday, sort of making up my mind to do Elbert's East Ridge. With literally the entire day still ahead of me, I scouted the TH for Elbert and found it packed with cars (indicating a trench was likely-always a positive thing). Still bummed about losing out a chance to climb a couloir, I then drove around the entire tenmile range to investigate Quandary from the dam and see if there was any wet-slide activity. This also gave me the opportunity to get a lot of pictures of the peaks with more snow on them than I've ever seen, so the drive was well-worth it. Until I got to Quandary at around 2pm, which was masked in blowing snow and whiteout. I took a nap at the parking lot above Blue Lakes for an hour in my car, woke up to the same conditions, and called it off, dejectedly deciding to again set up camp near Buena Vista and "just" do Elbert's East Ridge the following day. Couloir climbing solo on a route I couldn't visually scout exceeded my comfort levels.

During that depressing drive back to BV, I changed my mind again, deciding that if Cristo turned out sketchy, I could always just bail and then do Northstar via the east ridge instead. This is the entire run-around to me finally arriving at the dam at 6am Sunday morning to go for Quandary again. I share all this to remind readers that for out-of-towners who can't just try again the following weekend should they pick the "wrong" route on a given day, conditions reports and posts are worth gold on this site, and it was such a post on the FB group from a snowboarder that ultimately committed me to Quandary. He posted some pictures of his ride down the couloir and I could tell by the lighting that he was coming down during a later part of the morning than I had planned to, so I figured it would probably be safe for the attempt.

Quandary Peak.

Often maligned for the crowds it draws and the inexperience of hikers found on it, it nevertheless has a special place in my heart, as it was my first 14er, and I didn't get in with a hundred friends in summertime, but solo in calendar winter back in 2012. That got me hooked, and the experience of getting that first summit in winter and with snow took some of the enjoyment out of simple 14er hiking during the summer months. I enjoy the cold, the isolation, the scenery, and the additional challenges climbing in snow brings. This has a natural progression leading to couloir climbing, which I find more aesthetically pleasing than ascents via standard routes for some reason. It just feels more "mountainey" and worth my trip.

As with many of my other trips, I've set the ascent and descent via glissade to music and this does a great job of showcasing both the climb and glissade conditions from last weekend better than words or pictures can. Most excitingly, I found to my chagrin that youtube blocked the video upon upload due to copyright issues with the first track, so I found and wrote the copyright manager of the Record Label and he actually wrote me back and unblocked it! It's remarkable when one encounters generous persons who are reasonable with making exceptions to their "playbook" so to speak. As with my other videos, the ascent is set to choral music, in this case Aarvo Part's "The Deer's Cry," conveying my Sunday-morning emotions and the peacefulness of the setting, and contrasting with Queen's "Put Out the Fire" for the descent.

Arrived at the parking area at 545am and started right up. Another benefit of going solo? You don't have to wait around for the group to finalize their gear checks that you did the previous evening!

I passed about four or five cars in the lot for the East Ridge on my way up the road, so I knew that side would be seeing some traffic, but I didn't expect to find two vans parked at Blue Lakes already. One of them had several beer cans tossed outside it sitting in what looked like an attempt at a trash fire in the middle of the lot, which was unsuccessful. I parked and headed up the road, enjoying the views one never tires of.

At the dam, I could sit down on it and put on my crampons, as there was continuous snow from there to the summit from what I could see. I contoured west about a quarter mile before beginning my ascent directly into the gully.

The ascent itself took 3 hours. My out-of-shape self needed nine hours to summit Quandary on my first hike back in 2012, so it was really gratifying to see my training at low-elevation has paid off so substantially (all thanks to Steve House and his training manual). I was on hard neve for most of the ride up, with thick overcast keeping the sun covered so temperatures remained cool. A few hundred feet from the summit, the clouds finally burned off and the snow immediately began softening, but at that elevation it stayed firm enough for me to easily gain traction with the crampons. There were also several sets of steps kicked into the couloir in various lines, as well as lines from skiers, boarders, and glissaders coming down. A solid bootpack on the far west side of the couloir (more on top of the rib forming the gully) was also present, and seemed to be the line everyone else took coming up behind me. I opted for the center, feeling comfortable enough with the snowpack and my own strength to try for the steepest lines wherever possible. I'm planning on attempting Dead Dog and Castle/Conundrum via their couloirs this June so taking the "harder" line on Quandary seemed like a reasonable training method.

Some shots of the ascent.

A party of two climbers starting up the couloir below.

As I arrived on the summit, one other guy was also arriving from the East Ridge, but he didn't longer for long. I took some pictures of him with his camera and he headed back down, leaving me with my second time completely alone on the summit of one of the most crowded 14ers in CO. I stayed for about half an hour, waiting for the snow below to cook more for my planned glissade, and enjoying the solitude and views. They simply aren't the same in July and August when brown replaces white as the dominant color of much of the Rockies.

Summit view northwest. Atlantic Peak, so much less inspiring to look at, yet so much more fun to climb.

The descent was a little less by the books. I plunge-stepped about a hundred feet down from the summit before sitting and repacking my crampons. From here, I waited for a pair of climbers and a solo snowboarder to move past me before starting the glissade down. As the video shows, the upper portion of the couloir was not the best for arresting. I'm not sure if it was the storm snow from the previous afternoon or just a melt-freeze crust on top, but I had significant trouble maintaining a steady and controllable descent rate and opted for short bursts followed by immediate arrests (which weren't immediate). I ultimately opted to just ride down on my stomach in the arrest position, as from here I could more easily put on the breaks if necessary. After losing a few hundred feet of elevation, the snow became more agreeable and I allowed myself to build up some speed as I tore down the gully. Total descent time was about 25 minutes. One more reason for loving snow routes... I've read about the pair of climbers who ascended Everest via the "Great Couloir" and then found it in decent conditions to glissade down, getting them down 10,000ft in an hour's time. That's the way to do Everest.

Some additional pics of the couloir from the dam and TH and CO9.

People can say what they'd like about Quandary, but on both my experiences on it so far, I've found it an extraordinarily beautiful mountain with great ease of access, offerings of solitude, and with stellar views and conditions. If I ever talk any friends of mine from Texas into attempting snow or winter climbing, I'm sure I would take them on Quandary's East Ridge for their first winter outting or the Cristo for their first snow-climb, and I'm sure I'll repeat both of these routes at some point without complaint. In the meantime though, for the next four months or so, I'll avoid that mountain completely as it gets hammered by those chaco-wearing adventurers in their jeans and cotton t-shirts.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

Ace	Fellow Texan 5/10/2015 9:06pm Hey Tim, I’m from the north Fort Worth area. If you are ever looking for a climbing buddy for one of these quick type trips feel free to give me a heads up! I’d like to do more trips like this but my regular climbing buddy (my brother) doesn’t have a schedule that allows those type trips.
Jay521	Thanks! 6/1/2015 3:03pm I did your exact route this yesterday (5/31) and agree with everything you wrote about Quandry and the Cristo route. Very nice report, BTW.

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