A few words about the trailhead. As of mid 2003, the good folks at the Colorado Fourteener Initative have created a new, sustainable trailhead and trail for the standard route on Quandary. The trailhead is located about a quarter-mile up McCullough Gulch Rd. There is a large kiosk and parking on the right side of the road. This is now the recommended route. The old Monte Cristo trailhead lies about 1.0 miles up McCullough Gulch Rd, and followed old access roads through private property before becoming the standard route just below treeline. So please, use the new trailhead. Check out this page of the CFI website for more information.

It was a dark and stormy morning this December 9th...well, sort of. It was dark by virtue of the fact we were driving into the mountains at 6am in December, and stormy in so far as it was snowing in the Colorado high country. I-70 west of Denver was dry and clear until Silver Plume, and by the time we were emerged from the Eisenhower tunnel the highway was icy and snowpacked. Driving conditions weren't ideal, but the road crews were out plowing and sanding.

On this morning, the climb was cool but calm until treeline, where the wind picked up significantly as the woods thinned. Chris and I stopped to don another layer, snowshoes, and thicker hats at the last large grove of evergreens. As the sun struggled to pop through the low clouds and blowing snow, we continued grunting along the east ridge, which was not always easy. The actual trail (which is excellent in the summertime) was mostly obscured by snow, so we picked our way along, just making sure to stick to the ridgeline. The summit is 2 miles beyond treeline, and involves one false summit and then a long, moderate slope (about 38 degrees) to the summit. A picnic in the summer, the winds and blowing snow made it a little tougher in December. The ambient temperature was probably 10 degrees or so, but the winds, gusting to 60+ mph, made the wind chill far enough below zero to be dangerous. That, plus the wind was coming straight out of the west, and right in our faces during the entire ascent. Visibility ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred yards, but we were never in a whiteout condition, so it wasn't too bad.

About a mile from the summit, we were suprised to see two other hikers in front of us, who were also slowly struggling up the ridgeline. We figured no-one else would be out here on a day like this! We passed one of them about a quarter-mile from the summit, and kept pace with the leader, who was about 100 yards in front of us, though we kept losing him in the low clouds.

That last quarter-mile was definitely a tough grunt. The biting wind and drifting snow were beginning to take a toll, and we were moving slowly. The actual summit was obscured in the clouds, so we couldn't really tell how far off we were from the top. Finally, after psyching ourselves out a couple times, we found ourselves on the summit - about 4 hours after our start. The snow was fairly deep, and the summit was fairly narrow. The summit register had been stuffed inside an old Army ammunition box and bound to a couple skis that were sticking out of the rocks. The winds were blowing at a constant 50mph, gusting to 70. I made one attempt to remove a glove to sign in, but my hand numbed up within seconds, so I decided to just let it go. After a few snapshots for posterity, we turned around and picked our way off the summit. Descending proved to be much easier, as the howling winds were now at our back, and the visibility below was slowly improving as the morning turned to afternoon.

Chris had brought his tele-ski gear along, in hopes of a ski descent. However, there just wasn't enough snow above about 12,500 feet to make any serious attempts at skiing. After descending for another hour (and crossing paths with almost a dozen others, to our great surpass), we were back at that 12,500 foot mark, about a thousand feet above treeline. Chris donned skis, and I removed the snowshoes. A few quick glissades had me back at treeline, and Chris was right behind me, carving turns left and right.

The rest of the trek back to the trailhead was a bit of grunt for me, as I was pretty tired from the climb. I really wish I'd brought my own skis, since the trail was totally snowcovered below treeline. Chris skied ahead and made excellent time back to my waiting Blazer. I, on the other hand, had to hike every step of the way. By this time of the day (about 1:30pm), the sun had come out and it was a beautiful, crisp winter day. I finally finished the hike right about 1:45pm, making for a 4 hour climb and 2.25 hour descent. Despite the wind and snow and cold, it was a very satisfying climb, and one that I'd definitely recommend as a "first winter climb"!