Quandry Peak

14,265 feet

As usual, click on a picture to see it in detail.

Alright, maybe no abominable shadowmen, but I kinda felt like one once the wind kicked in. This was my first 14er. Dan had already done it a couple of times. This trip is where I learned climbing with Dan will always be an adventure. We arrived at Quandry just outside of Brekenridge, sometime after midnight, and decided to camp near the parking lot - up on the snowmobile trail. After Erecting Dan's tent I noticed the excellent ventillation holes, courtesy of some earlier expedition with someone who doesn't know how to handle a cigarette. And of course no tent is complete without fishbait! Dan has a can that's been in there longer than he can remember. Despite being March, I found that my wimpy little 40 degree bag worked just fine. fortunately we were wakened by the sound of fellow climbers, and not by the snowmobiles. With my hand me down (ancient) Koflach ski boots, and basically new apline touring skis on my pack I followed Dan, with ski boots, normal alpine skis, and snowshoes in his pack, up the hill. We were getting a nice early start, before the spring snow had a chance to start melting for the day, so we made excellent progress in out leather boots.

Dan Bowers taking a break on the ridge leading to Quandry's summit, waiting for the wind to die down. That haze you see obscuring Dan is snow and ice moving sideways. Quandry is interesting because it has false summits about every 1000ft, which make it easy to figure out how much farther you have to go. Just past the first false summit the snow got a little deeper and a little softer, so I put on my skis and climbing skins, but left on my leather mountaineering boots, while Dan put on his snow shoes. After reaching the 3rd false summit we picked up the ridge leading to the summit, which was wind swept and rocky - so the snow shoes and skis went back in the packs. Soon after, we dumped all our bulky gear, since I was getting tired (at 13,000+ft) and the wind was starting to blow Dan over.

Some fellow skiers made it about 1/3 of the way up the ridge leading to the summit, before taking a hint from Dan and I and dumping their skis for the last leg of the assault. If there was one thing Dan and I did right this trip, it was to drop the skis when we did. At my snail's pace, it probably saved us 45 minutes.

Little ol' me on top of big ol' Quandry Peak. I think mountains in the background are the collegiate range. Whatever they are, they are to the west of me in the photo. Incase you missed it. Here it is again, along with a party getting ready for their descent. After Dan and I got past the windy ridge, we put our skis on and cruised past them.

Learning to ski on the east coast was a big help in navigating the hard packed wind swept upper portion of our ski session; however, once I got to the thin crust covering the spring slush at the bottom, progress slowed to a snails pace. Dan, his expert skills, and true downhill (and parabolic) skis were able to drive through the schizophrenic snow, but I got stuck or fell over at every turn. At one point I misstook the snowshoers for hikers and figured the snow was packed enough where they were to take off my skis. It only took two steps to figure out just how wrong I was! By this time Dan, who had agreed at the top to wait for me no matter how slow I was comming down, was no where to be seen or heard. Meanwhile I'm getting more frustrated at my lack of skills the nasty conditions, and not being sure where I was. So I just followed the ski tracks from the Telemark skiers we had seen earlier. I can't begin to describe how happy I was to hear Dan hollering my name, and then to see the parking lot. But the adventure was still not over. Dan had inadvertently locked his key in the trunk of his car when a gust of wind blew the top closed. Did you know that certain Audi models have electric locks, but have no way to open the trunk other than with the key? Fortunately, we had taken separate cars so Dan could drive back to town and I could meet up with my old climbing partner Bill Vosseler, who was in Breckenridge for a weekend of resort skiing. We drove into Breckenridge to call Dan's folks and girlfriend to ask them to bring up a key. The girlfriend was unreachable, and the parents couldn't make it because they had an event to go to. At one point, his parents point out that I am an electrical engineer and might be able to figure out how to hot wire a car. Dan tells them no, but at their insistance asks me "Do you know how to hot wire a car," just as a local resident walks by. Needless to say I got a rather strange look. AAA, and the local locksmiths were also of negligible assitance, since it seems that Audis are some of the few cars that hardly any body leagally employed in opening locks can actually open. After a big plate of Nachos and a few beers, we met up with Bill and his entourage. Enter Bill's girlfriend's brother Chris. Turns out that he had the exact same model car in the past, and knew how to open the trunk since the same thing had happened to him. Needless to say, every one lived (out the weekend) happily ever after. The End.

Note: All these photo's were taken with a disposable camera and scanned in during development.