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On a whim, we started up our 14er skiing season with a great day out on Quandary. The snow however, proved quite variable from only rock to wind slab to recycled powder (really nice on the lower bowl).
The trail was snow covered until treeline and allowed us to skin in without problem but was thin for the first half mile.
Then from treeline to the flat part before the summit ridge there was variable snow/ice/rocks.
We only had to take the skis off once or twice for about 30 feet before the final summit ridge which we boot packed most of the way.
The wind wasn't extremely bad (for December) on the summit and the temps were around 20 with some good sun.
Since there was no snow to ski from the summit a 100 vertical foot hike down was necessary.
The rest of the pictures are of the ski off of the main summit on the northern edge of the upper bowl. The snow was chunky and variable with some good turns, as well as a few hidden rocks to make the day more exciting. Upper ski descent route
Once we got to the bottom of the upper bowl, we traversed around to the lower bowl where the best snow seemed to be collecting. No recent slides were visible and with all of the wind we checked conditions with a ski cut. All in all, results were, "Not too worried about it". So we gave it green light. This was the best skiing of the day as conditions lined up just right.
After meeting back up with the trail right at treeline we skied the south facing glade and met up with a nice surprise of a summer 4x4 road which eventually led us straight back to square one.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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