Quandary West Ridge
Shelby and Andrew scramble up the west ridge of Quandary Peak in Colorado.
Andrew and I have both summited Quandary peak a few times in different seasons
(winter) and with different footwear (ski boots and skis). This day we hiked and
scrambled Quandary peak's West Ridge. This route goes west to east up and over
Quandary. We parked at the Quandary peak trailhead and started up the road to
Blue Lake, this would allow us to finish at to the car on our return from the
East Ridge without any uphill hiking.
| Title | Content |
|---|---|
| Date | September 5 2020 |
| Activity | Scramble |
| Location | Quandary Peak, Tenmile Range, CO |
| Trailhead | Blue Lakes Trailhead |
| Distance | 9 miles round trip |
| Elevation Gain | Approximately 3400 |
| Season | Summer |
| Difficulty | Mostly class 2, some class 3 |
The walk down the road to the dam and the bottom of Cristo Couloir was brisk and dark. The trail across the valley was a bit hard to follow in the dark but it was nice to not have to bushwhack (everyone's favorite hiking activity!). The views were pretty looking back down the valley in the early light.
The solitude in the valley was nice and we think the Mountain goat we saw across the way was enjoying it as well. It was fun to see our intended route along the ridge line to our left as we headed up the valley. The trail was faint at times but our general direction was to the ridge.
On the ridge we got ready for the scramble ahead. We learned Andrew had left his sunglasses in the car :(. Thankfully the summit provided us shade from the rising sun for a while. The trail along the ridge was easy to follow and the difficulty remained quite mellow.
The views in late summer are quite different than our last time up Quandary in Winter. We enjoy naming the mountains we see nearby.
Around 14,000 feet the difficulty increased and Andrew I found solid rock to make things interesting. Most of the route finding was pretty straightforward and we went the way that made sense but also looked fun.
Finally, we topped out to a crowd at the top of Quandary peak. Most people ascend the standard way (East Ridge) and a few people asked us where we came from. We were the only ones at the top with helmets. To complete the loop we descended the busy East Ridge and got back to the car feeling pretty good - it wasn't even noon yet!
This was a fun way to ascend Quandary - I think we both prefer skiing to hiking
down though.