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Quandary Peak - Keeping up with the six-year-olds (barely!)

My plans were to hike the East Slopes route on Quandary Peak, near Breckenridge, on Wednesday, 13 October 2004.  It turns out that there is a group, 'Climbers For Kerry', who planned to summit all of the 54 fourteen-thousand foot peaks in Colorado on this day, in a statement of support for John Kerry.  I count myself in the Kerry (aka 'not-Bush') camp, so that seemed like an extra bonus for climbing this peak.  But it turns out that Climbers For Kerry wasn't going to stoop to taking any old way up.  In particular, they sneered at a route so easy, that it could be climbed by 'any well-conditioned six-year-old'.  They were talking, of course, of the East Slopes route on Quandary!  I went to sleep Tuesday night with crystal clear skies overhead, wondering how I would keep up with the six-year-olds.

Wednesday morning, there was about eight inches of new snow on the ground, with more still falling.  Nobody else was at the trailhead, and there was a blanket of fresh snow covering the ground, and the trail, for that matter.  (This snow was enough to get the first ski area in Colorado to open.)  There wasn't any wind down in the trees, so I readied to head up the trail.


No clear skies today!


Hiking through new-fallen snow is absolutely delightful.

When I got past tree line, the wind started to really pick up.  At one point, I saw some green plastic mesh poking through the snow, and assumed I was following the trail, but I really wasn't.  The going was steeper now, and with the wind and blowing snow, moving forward was suddenly a lot harder.  I continued up a few hundred more feet, past the very last of the trees, and looked at the clouds.  I didn't really like what I saw, it looked like some of them were piling up, like thunderstorm clouds.  It was definitely getting a lot windier, and I was the only person on the mountain.  I decided to turn back.  It was disappointing not to measure up to a six-year-old.  It turns out that I probably could have gone on:  The blusteriness was actually blowing the clouds away.  By the time I got back to my hotel room and cleaned up, the skies were beautiful and blue.  (It seems that the Climbers For Kerry didn't make it either.)


Quandary Peak from near tree line

I came out the next day, Thursday, to try again.  The weather was completely gray.  There still didn't look like any footprints other than mine from yesterday.  After I got to tree line, again, the wind really picked up.  I decided that I didn't feel like braving the sandpapery feel of snow blowing on my face, and forcing my way up in the cold wind.  So, I quit, and turned back.  On the way down, I passed a fellow member of FourteenerWorld, George Barnes.  George had more determination than I did, and made it to the summit.  You can read his report here.  Not feeling very accomplished, the next day I took it easy and drove to the Maroon Bells.

Finally, on Saturday, I came back to Quandary.  The weather was perfect, blue skies and not much wind.  By now, there were lots of footprints on the trail, so I could actually find it, and much of the snow was gone.  There were plenty of other people too.  Many of them commented that the wind was really strong, which I thought was kind of funny, it was nowhere near as bad as on Wednesday and Thursday.  A little after 11 am, I made it to the top, and signed the register right after George.  (There had obviously been many people to come up since Thursday, but they seemingly didn't sign the register.)


Quandary summit ridge, with about one thousand feet up to go


Tough as a six-year-old!  On the summit of Quandary Peak, 14265 feet


Even though the wind wasn't too bad, there were a few good gusts now and then

Forward to Maroon Bells