Quandary Peak is probably one of the earliest peaks to be ridden in Colorado. Every year several hundred riders/skiers climb to the summit and ride it. There are often 15-20 snowboarders/skiers on the summit at the same time on a busy winter day. The east ridge provides an avalanche safe ascent/descent route. You can also drop into the east bowls which provide a fairly mellow ski for a 14er descent. These bowls, particularly the lower bowl, are avalanche prone though. A popular couloir descent, called the Cristo couloir, drops off the southern face of Quandary from near the summit. There is also a steeper, little known couloir on the north side of Quandary called White Widow.
earliest known descents:
March 1996-Dan Bogardus rode Quandry-east slopes
spring 1996- Barrows Worm and Mark Rikkers-Cristo Couloir
04/2000 and 04/2001- Erik Kling, Josh Lewis(skier), and Rolf Kelly(skier) descend the eastern bowls.
February 2005- Zach Taylor and Ricardo Contro descend the eastern bowls.
March 2005-Zach Taylor and Casey Flynn descend the eastern bowls
5/15/2005- Jarrett Luttrell descends the Cristo Couloir. Check out his TR at http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=5577&parmuser=Easy+Rider&np=3&cpgm=tripuser
05/2006-Zach Taylor, Hammish Gowans(skier) and Mike Bannister(skier) descend the Cristo Couloir.
05/2007-Zach Taylor, Mike Bannister(skier), and Vannessa Logsdon(skier) descend the Cristo Couloir
February 2008-Chapin Johnson and Zach Taylor descend the east bowls
3/1/2008-Nat Burns and Austin Porzak(skier) descend the southeast face of Quandary Peak and link it up to the Cristo Couloir on the lower face.
2/28/2009-Grant Lewis and Zach Taylor descend the eastern bowls. Check out Zach's trip report at
4/10/2010-Zach Taylor, Joel Paula(skier) and Mike Bannister(skier) climb the east ridge and descend the Cristo Couloir. Check out Zach's trip report at
Kirill Kireyev hiking up the upper east ridge of Quandary Peak, unknown skiers pictured behind. February 2005 courtesy of Zach Taylor
photo-Nat Burns on the summit of Quandry Peak, photo by Austin Porzak, 2008.
photo-Nat Burns taking a slide on the southeast face of Quandry peak. photo by Austin Porzak, 2008.
photo- A view of the south face of Quandry Peak from Mt Lincoln. The East ridge of North Star Mountain is just visible in the foreground. photo by Erik Kling, 5/19/2005
