I've had my eye on the West Ridge of Quandary Peak for a while, so I decided to climb it this weekend. This is one of a series I'd like to climb, going back to peaks I've already summited and doing a more difficult route. Still on the list is the North Ridge of Democrat, the East Ridge of Bierstadt/Sawtooth Ridge/Evans combo, and the Kelso Ridge on Torreys (again). The best part about these peaks is that they're so close to home.

Woke up at 04:20, left Aurora at 04:45, arrived at the Blue Lakes trailhead at 06:45. When I opened the car door I thought it was going to blow off, it was so windy. The sun was just about to rise. I had my doubts about doing this climb in fall, since we just had some snow the previous weekend. The road to the dam was completely clear and I saw no snow on the south side of Quandary, although the north face of North Star Mountain was dusted with snow. My main concern about this climb was the possibility of snow/ice, but now the wind was thrown in as a factor. I decided to hit the trail anyway.

I had a lot of extra gear this time: helmet, ice axe, crampons, a half rope, a harness with some slings and a few protection pieces. I highly doubted I would need most of this, but I wanted to be able to rappel out of a jam if I found myself stuck in a bad spot. In any case, the extra gear weighed down my pack considerably but it didn't bother me much.

I started hiking up the trail toward the hanging valley between Fletcher and Quandary Peaks at 06:55. This was a very nice hike, and I had no company whatsoever. When I reached the 13,400' saddle between Fletcher and Quandary, the wind hit me full force. I clocked the wind at about 40mph, and it was fairly steady. The windchill was about 10F. At that point I decided it might be prudent to turn back, since I didn't think 40mph winds would mix well with an unfamiliar and exposed 3rd class route, with the possibility of snow and ice. I sat down for a while with my back to the wind, and surveyed the ridge. It didn't look too bad, although I knew the difficulties did not begin until 14,000'. I thought I could at least make my way up the ridge and see how the wind felt; sometimes a saddle is the windiest place.

I started up the ridge, and the good trail soon dropped off to the north side of the ridge, out of the wind. It was very easy going here, all the way to 14,000'. Sure enough, I crested a small ridge and then the challenge became apparent. Several large, steep towers separated by nasty gullies lie between me and the summit. I could see this was going to be interesting. At first, the trail was clear as it meandered around the first tower on the south side, then ducked through a notch between the first and second towers back to the north side. The details are fuzzy even though I just climbed this yesterday... The north side was a little scary in parts due to the snow. I had to traverse some steep, narrow gullies, and in more than one case I tried one or two paths before settling on the safest way. Some of the climbing followed the top of the ridge, and this was the most enjoyable. I used my ice axe in the snow gullies once or twice, and kept my helmet on for most of the ridge. The rest of the climbing gear remained in my pack.

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

The trail became indistinct in many areas, and I had no idea which was the best way to go, so I just used trial and error. Most of the climbing was 3rd class, some 4th class, and I ran into some lower 5th class terrain that I opted not to climb. Occasionally I had to traverse narrow ledges and steps over considerable exposure, some of them snow-covered. To make matters worse, the snow was fresh and powdery, and only served to conceal the holds and make things slippery. Finally I made my way to a cairn on the ridge crest, and I could see the difficulties were over, only an easy ridge separated me from the summit. I sat down and relaxed for a minute, reflecting on the climb. If I smoked this would have been a good time for a cigarette...

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

I reached the summit at 10:40. There was a memorial for a guy who lived from 1974-1999. I don't recall his name, but it was made from two downhill skis jammed into the rock, crossed over one another. A .223 ammunition box was attached to the joined part of the skis, and the register was in the box. I wondered what happened... did he die skiing down this mountain? I also thought of the accident which occurred on the West Ridge route two years ago.

As I relaxed on the summit 3 climbers approached from the east, and we talked for a while. They had considered climbing the west ridge but were deterred by the snow. In retrospect, I would only climb this ridge again with no snow, or at least with consolidated spring snow. This might have been my most challenging climb due to the intricate routefinding. We spent some more time identifying the surrounding peaks and relaxing in the sun. The temperature was about 50 and it was nice and warm when the wind wasn't blowing. Finally, the group left to descend the east ridge, and I poked around the south face looking for the Cristo Couloir, which went directly down the south face to the Blue Lakes dam and my car. I could have descended the east ridge route but that would have required a 2mi backtrack to the car. I think that group would have given me a ride to the car, but I also wanted to check out the couloir, so I started down. As these routes usually go, it was a tedious scree slope mixed with grass and rock, hard on the knees and thighs. But it was also quick going, and I made it to the car in 1:20. By this time it had warmed up even more and I was in t-shirt and shorts.