Backcountry Skiing Quandary Peak, Breckenridge, Colorado
Quandary Peak can be a great fourteener to ski in the winter. The key words in the last sentence are “can be.” Yesterday turned out not to be one of those days. Conditions had been completely ruined by the wind. Mike and I didn’t realize this until we were 3/4 of the way to the top and at that point we realized we were in it for the exercise and the views instead of the skiing.
We started out that morning from the Quandary Peak trailhead in Blue River, which at the time of writing does not require reservations in the winter (you need reservations to park there in the summer). We started skinning up the summer hiking trail route, which is what we followed to the top of the mountain for the most part. It was a beautiful bluebird day with no wind below treeline. Once we got above treeline, the winds started to pick up as they typically do on this peak. We continued skinning up along the ridge and only needed to take off our skis for one short section to walk over the exposed rocks. As we approached the final saddle and could see the condition of the upper bowl better, we realized it wasn’t going to be a great ski down. This was confirmed when we needed to put on ski crampons to make it up the last part of the ridge to the top. I have skinned up Quandary a few times before and this was the first time I needed ski crampons.
When we made it to the top, the winds were probably gusting over 50 mph so we didn’t linger long and quickly transitioned. The top bowl was all firm, extremely wind-affected snow. No good turns were had unfortunately. The lower bowl was also wind affected and had a funky wind crust on it that had us carefully picking our way down. Once we finally got into treeline, the snow conditions still weren’t great, but this time because of how warm and sticky the snow had gotten. At that point there was nothing to do but laugh at the situation - we found a variety of snow types but they were all quite bad. Oh well. Regardless, I won’t complain as it was a great day spent outside with beautiful views. However, I will hope that conditions are at least a little bit better the next time I ski this peak!
Total stats: 6.8 miles, 3300 ft of elevation gain
