My First 14,000' Summit and a Ski Descent. Trip Report w/pics

[nubs]

This is very long and I'm a poor writer but I still had the desire to share this. I already posted most of these pics but didn't write up a TR.

My friend Mike and I decided that we would attempt to summit Quandary (14,265’) near Breckenridge Colorado on St. Patrick’s Day. We would also be skiing down. Mike would be telemarking and skinning up and I would be lugging my alpine skis and boots all the way to the summit.

We had unsuccessfully attempted Long’s peak the weekend prior. That failed attempt had started at 2am and ended around sunrise after we realized that we had made a wrong turn and hiked over a mile in the wrong direction. There will be no failures this time.

Mike and I were set to meet at the Golden Park and Ride at 4:30am. At about 11pm the night before I start trying to get some sleep but I have a feeling I won’t be able to. I had gone to bed at 5am the night before and woken up at 3 in the afternoon. After tossing and turning in bed for an hour or so I decide to have a nightcap and take a shot of vodka. Disgusting. I toss and turn for another hour and decide to play poker. I make a few bucks and look at the clock. It was 3:30am. I guess I won’t be sleeping tonight.

I pack up and drive the half hour from Boulder to Golden and meet Mike at the parking lot. Thankfully he will be driving and maybe I will finally be able to get some sleep. I do finally fall asleep around the Eisenhower tunnel through the continental divide. When I wake up an hour later we are pulling into the trailhead (10,850’). It’s about 6:15 and still dark out. Unfortunately I don’t have a headlamp. I do, however, have a mini maglight that I slip in the sleeve of my jacket. Needless to say it falls out several times in the 45minutes left of darkness.

We get all suited up. Mike skins up his skis and I strap mine to my backpack along with a pair of snowshoes. I put on my backpack and it is HEAVY. I would guess it weighed about forty pounds and I only weigh a scrawny 150 pounds. As we are getting ready another car arrives at the trailhead and they are off up the trail in a flash. It is a single person and it doesn’t look like he will be skiing down.

We get on the trail at about 6:30 and luckily for me the snow is still fairly hard. The beginning of the trail is through a lightly wooded area. We can see previous hiker’s tracks and a lot of postholes. (Postholes is when someone takes a step in the snow and their foot sinks to their knee or wherever) Since the snow is still hard from being frozen that night I am able to pick my way around the posthole minefield in hiking boots without postholing myself. Mike can easily negotiate the snow in his telemark skis and I’m very jealous. We get to tree line (about 12,000’ I think) just in time for a beautiful sunrise.



Progress is still fairly quick and I can still avoid the posthole minefields without postholing myself. We get to the ridge of the mountain and start making our way up.



The climb is starting to get steep and I’m occasionally losing my footing in my hiking boots. Crampons would be nice right about now. This is about where we see the climber who got a head start on us. He seems to be struggling and taking many breaks. We later find out that he is German and probably from close to sea level. Mike is having an easier time than me at this point. Here i am lagging behind.



We get to the base of the final push and Mike looks at his gps. Our altitude is 13,500’. Only 700’ in elevation gain to go! But this is where it gets hard. Mike has done several 14ers before and he tells me this is going to be the hardest part. He was right; the final 700’ in elevation gain was harder than the previous 2500’. At this point Mike has to take off his skis and strap them to his back because it is too steep.



We head up the ridge and it starts to get very windy. My skis are acting as wind foils and pushing me to the side. I look over the ridge and see a 50’ fall to a big pile of jagged rocks. If there is a big wind gust I have to lie down. We keep moving but progress is getting very slow. I can definitely tell that the altitude is catching up to me. It seems I can’t go further than ten feet without becoming short of breath.

If you have seen the show Everest: beyond the Limit on Discovery channel I probably looked like the biker dude. It was seriously difficult to put one foot in from of the other. I can’t imagine 29k’. I keep telling myself how close I am and just concentrate on the next step. I pass the German at about 14,100’ and the summit is in sight. Mike is ahead of me and he thinks he sees the summit. He breaks into a run only to be disgusted that it is only a false summit. The true summit is only a few feet further.

I meet him at the summit 5-10 minutes later and I am no longer tired. I feel elated. My first 14er, and a winter ascent to boot.





We spend about half an hour at the summit before heading back down. I start to get queasy. I think I was suffering from mild altitude sickness. I put on my ski boots and we get ready for the fun part.



Without my skis or boots I can barely tell I am wearing a backpack. The snow is not very good. It is pretty windblown and hard packed but this is much better than walking. There isn’t a continuous ski line and we have to hike across a band of rocks for about 100’ partway down. We continue skiing down passing several groups of hikers making their way to the summit. One group proclaims how jealous they are and Mike proceeds to eat it right in front of them. Too bad I didn’t have a camera to record the hilarity. We get to tree line and it’s time for a break and a St Patrick’s Day treat. Black and Tan's!



The snow starts to get very bad. I am postholing with my skis on! Mike gets frustrated and takes his skis off but I decide to soldier through. I get to a fork in the road with a sigh that says TRAIL and points straight ahead. I naturally turn right and sink 3’ into the snow a few hundred feet later. This time I can’t pull my ski out and I’m forced to dig it out. I am so incredibly exhausted and the digging is slow going. I resort to using my other ski as a shovel and free my ski 15 minutes later.

I have obviously taken the wrong turn at this point but all of a sudden I hear the beeps of Mike’s car being unlocked. I throw my skis over my shoulder and stumble down the mountain postholing most of the way. I eventually hit a dirt road and stumble down to the trailhead completely spent. I slept 14 hours that night.

[TheBlueMonster]

congrats dude. I plan on reading it fully in the morning. I myself would probably never do such a thing (us rock climbers are wimps at heart...isn't that right Alobar...) but nice job.
Oh, and the celabratory beer is clutch.

[FUJItheFISH]

awesome!

[mbillie1]

Awesome trip report, well done and killer ski trip, I'm jealous

[SmileyEH]

ballin'

[mlagoo]

i really enjoyed this report, it sounds incredible. nice job.

[cbloom]

Holy crap that sounds like a lot of work.

[captZEEbo]

i really like the high quality pictures =)

[kordothebear]

nice tr, that takes alot of work, about how long did it take you to ski down the hill( not including when you took ur skis off to walk over the rocks?)

[GTL]

[ QUOTE ]
nice tr, that takes alot of work, about how long did it take you to ski down the hill( not including when you took ur skis off to walk over the rocks?)

[/ QUOTE ]

a lot less than it took hiking up.

great trip report. i have never been skiing out west, but this really makes me want to get out there.