Trail Report - Quandary Peak - Colorado
Route: East Ridge
7.1 Miles Round Trip
3348 feet of elevation gain
Date Climbed: August 12, 2019
Climbers: Sheri, Paul
Quandary Peak! Some of Colorado's 14ers see more action than others, and Quandary is one that sees lots
of action. There are several reasons for this. Quandary is relatively close to Denver, it's a relatively
easy 14er to climb (keeping in mind there is NO easy 14er, but just relatively!), and the trail head is
paved and easy to find (so, no 4WD roads like many 14ers). After spending some time in the Evergreen
and Silverthorne area in 2019, Sheri and I decided to give Quandary's East Ridge a go!
The East Ridge of Quandary is Class 2. The trail begins through some beautiful alpine areas and is
very well marked. Things begin to get a little rockier and challenging as you begin to break out
of the tree line. The views to the south are particularly impressive looking over Blue Lakes and
over to 13er North Star Mountain.
After a relatively easy section where the trail flattens out, you
begin the steep section up the final face of Quandary. While the section is still rated as class 2, especially
if you haven't done a lot of picking your way up rocky, scree-filled, above-tree-line mountain walls out
West, it can still be quite challenging. You need to take your time and make sure each step is a
good one. While a fall would not be fatal, you could still get banged up pretty good if you take a bad tumble!.
Sheri and I had a bluebird day and took our time. The summit of Quandary is beautiful with views
to the South over North Star Mountain and looking at the Decalibron 14er group (Democrat, Cameron,
Lincoln, and Bross). Views to the north look up towards the Breckenridge area.
Mountain goats seemed to be my theme for 2019 as I saw lots of them on 14ers. But the family sighting
on Quandary was probably the best. On the way down, a family of 5 literally caravaned right in front
of me... what a blast seeing these creatures that, as an east-coaster, you just never see growing up.
Awesome vid of a family of mountain goats on Quandary Peak!:
Overall Quandary is a great hike / climb! I would definitely recommend it for folks looking to get
into 14ers as a first foray into getting up in elevation and tackling some above tree line rocky, scree slopes.
Hope this has been enjoyable and / or helpful to anyone reading it!!
Comments
Add Comment:
Name:
Comment:
Comments ReCaptcha (to verify you are actually a person)
Please click the ReCaptcha button below. Sorry to do this but we had robots posting spam messages on this blog and this prevents that.