The most memorable aspect of our August 25, 1995 ascent of Quandary Peak has to be the long ridge you can see in the picture to the right. It's not steep until near the summit, but its length can wear you out!
Quandary is the northernmost 14er of the Mosquito Range, although some name its subrange the Ten Mile Range. It lies just north of Mt. Lincoln, with Hoosier Pass between the two. You can get a great view of Quandary Peak from the pass on Colorado Highway 9, less than 10 miles south of the town of Breckenridge.
The first recorded
description of Quandary Peak occured in 1844 as John C. Fremont journeyed through the area
and over Hoosier Pass on his second expedition, though, of course, the mountain had been
viewed earlier by the Ute Indians
and early fur trappers in the area. Since then, the mountain has had various names,
including Ute Peak, McCullough's Peak and Hoosier Peak. As with all of the Mosquitos, the
slopes of Quandary were soon dotted with mines and lesser diggings in the 1860s.
To get to Quandary, take an old logging road which leads west from Colorado 9 along Monte Crisco Creek. You can hike north from anywhere along this road up to Quandary's long ridge, but the farther you go along the road, the steeper the terrain gets. If you go too far, thinking you'll save yourself some of the distance you'll have to hike west, you'll end up exhausted on a climb instead of exhilerated on a hike.
Near the trailhead, there is an area flat enough to camp for the night. That's what we did. Unfortunately, as is often the case in the Mosquito Range, we had to endure a night of rain in the tent. Even cooking on a Coleman stove was difficult in the downpour. But, the next morning, we awoke at 6:30 to blue skies, had a leasurly breakfast of oatmeal and began our pursuit at 7:23.
From our campground, we headed uphill toward the northeast, following a wide trail. Once you find the trail (!), there is basically no way to lose it as it heads steadily up, but not too steep. At about 11,200 feet the trail reaches the long ridge (but still in the trees), at which point you turn to the northwest, following the rounded hump up.
We hadn't seen anyone else on the mountain until we just about reached timberline at 8:15 am. From timberline, you just follow the unrelenting ridge until you reach the summit. Keep in mind, though, that the real summit is obscured for a while by a false summit. Don't get discouraged when you top out and you find you're only half the way there!
The ridge is long and unrelenting. The only break you get is immediately after the false summit - you head steadily up except for that small respite, though it is not too steep. At about 13,200 feet, however, that changes as you enter onto Quandary's cone. Note in the picture of Klaus on the ridge, to the left, that the steepness of the ridge changes dramatically at that point!
Because of ice/snow covering the top of the ridge near the summit, we had to travel across boulders south of the ridge for the last few hundred feet below the summit. We topped out at 11:20 am, with a clear weather summit (our only one in the Mosquitos!) and a beautiful panorama of the Sawatch Range to the west, the Mosquitos to the south, Grays Peak and Torreys Peak to the northeast and South Park streching out below us to the southeast.
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