Colorado 14'er bagging: June 23rd 2007

When 6 am finds Helen and I leaving the trailhead on Saturday morning I admit to myself a little surprise. Mt Quandary had been our plan all along for my first day in Colorado, but after spending most of the prior day not sure where or when I'd retrieve a lost piece of luggage from Frontier airlines I'm very happy to be back on schedule.

Our goal was pretty simple: have fun and bag as many of Colorado's high peaks (those over 14,000 feet) in the week we had. Mount Quandary's west ridge would be our warm-up - a class 3 scramble in prep for harder routes later this week. This would also be the first time I've climbed a 14'er the day after arriving at elevation.

I could feel my lack of acclimation as we headed up the McCullough Gulch Trail and reminded myself to take it easy. I tried to let Helen do most of the talking so I could save my breath for just moving uphill (old mountaineers trick). Once we reached the first lake we crossed the outflow stream where I soaked one of my boots (a theme for the next few days) and then continued with a rising traverse across Quandary's north side.

Several snow fields linger across our route so we take the time to use our crampons and ice axes to cross the still hard snow. Sitting down to attach the crampons and explaining snow techniques to Helen gives me another chance to catch my breath. I hope not to run out of excuses to stop and rest before we reach the summit.

Along our traverse we find a large boulder resting at an angle, seeking a short diversion we take our route through the small tunnel under tons of rock and almost immediately we discover a ptarmigan in between winter and summer plumage.

Finally, we reach the crest of the ridge and can pause to look back at Fletcher Mountain just to the west. Ahead of us is the snow-free west ridge, so we pack away the ice axes and prepare for the scrambling ahead. For a little while, we follow a trail on the north side of the ridge, but as the crest steepens we stay closer to the top and work our way around difficulties, trying to follow the easiest line.

The guidebook claims that proficient route finding will allow one to reach the summit with only scrambling, not real climbing required. My skills were certainly not up to par today as I led us down a loose gully and then up a frightening 5th class climb where book-sized rocks came off as I pulled on them, hoping to find something to hang my weight from. Helen screamed at me to let the rocks fall while I paused to appreciate that I wasn't rapidly descending past her. Only after insuring that the drops rocks wouldn't hit her, I let them fly down the gully and the long snow slope below. The only moment harder, was having to watch Helen climb up the same route and being unable to do anything but calmly talk her through it.

Our bodies were still quaking with adrenaline when we reached the summit a few minutes later. After seeing no one all day the summit came as a shock with the 30+ people milling about and asking why we'd carried our ice axes up. We had to explain that while their route (the east slopes) was snow free the north side of the mountain definitely wasn't.

When it became apparent that we couldn't catch our breath at 14,000 feet, we rushed down the east slopes using all that excitement and adrenaline to send us back to the trailhead and 3,000 feet lower in about one hour. Suddenly, the air felt thicker and I felt my acclimatization was over.

Back at the car we pulled on clean shirts and fled over Hoosier Pass for the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado. A long rutted gravel road brought us to the Mt Lindsey trailhead and we setup a tent in a little meadow as mule deer came by to check out our dinner selection.