Quandary Peak Trip Report 04/04/2011

Peak(s):	Quandary Peak - 14,272 feet
Date Posted:	04/04/2011
Date Climbed:	04/02/2011
Author:	tygrubb

The Cristo opening Couloir Season
Quandary Peak: 14,265' Cristo Couloir Snowboard Descent Jon (seekanddestroy99) Collin After missing a trip last weekend to the Silver Couloir on Buffalo Peak with Jon and Collin (Jon's trip report) I managed to wake up at 4:30 AM to drive up to the Quandary Peak trailhead to tackle the Cristo Couloir. We left the trailhead around 7:15 AM after parking behind a crowd of 8 other cars. I had climbed Quandary in the summer a couple years back and got some sweet shots of mountain goats hanging out in the summer sun. Today wouldn't be quite as nice weather wise. The 60 mph wind gusts on the summit ridge made the last 500 vertical feet of climbing pretty strenuous, especially with my board acting as a sail on my back. Still in the market for a splitboard.... I managed to summit a couple of minutes behind Jon and Collin right around 11 AM and got a quick bite to eat before we dropped into the couloir. The entrance to the couloir took a little sidestepping across some exposed talus before reaching the wind loaded chute. The snow was packed and soft so we took a cautious route down with stopping in safe zones for the first half of the descent. After that the couloir mellows out quite a bit and we rode through the run-out onto the frozen lake just beneath the dam. The hike out was a breeze once we hopped on the dam access road and rode the downhill back to the trailhead. A couple PBRs back at the car rounded out an awesome morning. I forgot the point and shoot in the car but the POV from the GoPro is much more interesting anyway.... Cristo Couloir POV Footage

The Cristo opening Couloir Season

Quandary Peak: 14,265'
Cristo Couloir Snowboard Descent

Jon (seekanddestroy99)
Collin

After missing a trip last weekend to the Silver Couloir on Buffalo Peak with Jon and Collin (Jon's trip report) I managed to wake up at 4:30 AM to drive up to the Quandary Peak trailhead to tackle the Cristo Couloir.

We left the trailhead around 7:15 AM after parking behind a crowd of 8 other cars. I had climbed Quandary in the summer a couple years back and got some sweet shots of mountain goats hanging out in the summer sun. Today wouldn't be quite as nice weather wise. The 60 mph wind gusts on the summit ridge made the last 500 vertical feet of climbing pretty strenuous, especially with my board acting as a sail on my back. Still in the market for a splitboard....

I managed to summit a couple of minutes behind Jon and Collin right around 11 AM and got a quick bite to eat before we dropped into the couloir. The entrance to the couloir took a little sidestepping across some exposed talus before reaching the wind loaded chute. The snow was packed and soft so we took a cautious route down with stopping in safe zones for the first half of the descent. After that the couloir mellows out quite a bit and we rode through the run-out onto the frozen lake just beneath the dam. The hike out was a breeze once we hopped on the dam access road and rode the downhill back to the trailhead. A couple PBRs back at the car rounded out an awesome morning.

I forgot the point and shoot in the car but the POV from the GoPro is much more interesting anyway....

Cristo Couloir POV Footage

Comments or Questions

seekanddestroy99	Nice Work 4/5/2011 5:26am Nice work Tyler! Here is my brief report from the day with pictures: http://jonjay.org/2011/04/04/a-quick-quandary-report/
copymatt	Crampons? 4/8/2011 7:29pm Did you manage to just use your snowshoes the whole way up, or did you have to switch to crampons? Thinking of hitting it tomorrow, and I'd love to not have to schlep both. Thanks.
tygrubb	crampons 4/8/2011 10:20pm We hiked the east ridge which is pretty mellow. No need for crampons. The skin path is pretty packed down and you could probably make it up without snowshoes but they might make it a bit easier. The descent is awesome. Good luck.
copymatt	Thanks 4/9/2011 5:54am Thanks Tyler. We'll let you know how it goes!
TedWhit	Good Job 4/15/2011 1:45am I made that climb that same day, I'm pretty sure I was the slowest one up there, I seen a kid no older than 10 and his dad pass me up. Good Job on the climb
jmibarra	good job 5/9/2014 12:30pm im looking to make this trip myself very soon. stoked to see the trip went well for you!

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