QUANDARY PEAK 8/5/85

QUANDARY PEAK 14,265'


Mountain........Quandary Peak
Elevation.........14,265
Rank...............12th
Range..............Ten Mile
Trail length......3 miles
Elevation gain..3,500'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........All-encompassing view

TRIP REPORT

8/5/85

Having warmed up the day before on what is often considered Colorado's easiest Fourteener (Sherman), we were prepared for a run up Quandary Peak. We found what looked like a parking area just off Route 9 near the top of the pass, found what looked like a trail, and headed uphill. We wandered steadily up on the criss-crossing trail until we reached the top of the ridge. We saw some deer (or maybe elk?) in the distance grazing in an alpine meadow. We continued up the long, constantly sloped ridge (we found two somewhat level 'rest spots') until we reached the summit cairn. There were excellent views in all directions - we were able to identify 30 other 14ers, and suspected there were even more out there that we didn't recognize.
We had a long lunch basking in the sun and actually got hot on the return trip. We took the pedestrian route down (the way we came up), but I understand that now it is 'de rigueur' to glissade directly off the summit (conditions permitting).