come hike with us: quandary peak

Wake up call at 4:00 a.m. this morning to drive over to climb this peak. We arrived at the trailhead at around 5:40 and began our hike with the headlight 5:50. The small parking lot right by the trailhead had 7 cars in it and it was full, we parked behind a truck that had boxed in another car (we left them plenty of room). We walked with a nice family who were worried and wanted to make sure this was the "easiest" trail available. I assured them it was, thanks to my extensive internet research on the trail. They later beat us by a solid hour...phew. 

Quandary Peak is known for being a beginner 14er. Everyone that has climbed any will agree that there are no easy 14ers out there. Seriously, this is tough stuff. 

Even for the avid hiker all 14ers are HUGE deal!!

The sun was beginning to rise and we caught our first glimpses of gorgeous scenery.

Soon enough, we were almost above treeline (most of the hike is above treeline). All I can say about that is...the oxygen disappears

 (oh, and the rocks are everywhere..."rocky mountains" I should have known")

We stopped here for a quick breakfast. I was using every opportunity for a break. Holy Cow. At this point in the trek, there weren't a lot of people out - yet.

At this point in the hike I was getting excited. I could see what I thought was the summit, but it was actually the false summit.  

Then I got over that hump and saw this....

"Who wants to turn around?" 

Despite the loud calls in my mind to give up, there was a teensy weensy voice pushing me forward. And Jake.

On this saddle area was where we saw this fella right on the trail. Of course, I remembered the article I read about a person being gored to death, so I turned the other direction and planned to wait. But a nice couple assured us that you can just walk by them. Apparently they like to lick the salt from people's urine off the rocks. *Side note, we peed in bushes not in the open haha.

The next picture is deceiving in this storyline....because NO, after the saddle photo above we were NOT immediately at the summit. Once you go across the saddle you have a MASSIVE rock climb ahead of you. This climb seemed like it would never end. My favorite saying was (as everyone passed us by on the breaks I needed) "you're almost there!!!" I smiled but inside I was like "shut up, I can clearly see that I am not almost there. The amount of breaks we took during the extremely steep rock climb to the top was incredible. Like, I would go ten steps and stop for twenty. I literally thought we weren't going to make it. 

Taking pictures of it was the last thing on my mind. My body was in survival mode - OK.

Looking upward was discouraging because it felt like we wouldn't ever make it, but looking down showed me how far we'd already come, so I knew - even if we went at a snail's pace - that we HAD to keep going.

"I think I can, I think I can..."

And sure enough! We reached the summit!!!! 

It took us 3.5 hours to get up here. We are flatlanders, my lungs and head were in pain unless we took breaks frequently. We hiked at a good pace until we got above treeline, then we slowed down.

Had to put this picture in, just in case you didn't believe that we actually made it :) .

We spent about thirty minutes at the summit enjoying the views and eating some lunch. 

Scroll -----> ----> to get the full effects of the next two images. They are panoramas from my iphone.

When it was time to head back down, we ever so gently made our descent among the piles of rocks.

Here's Jake with the false summit in the background.

And I turned around to take a picture of all of the people who looked like ants climbing up to the top. This was the worst part that I was telling you about earlier, but this picture doesn't even do it justice.

I couldn't believe I actually climbed up all of those!! No way!

On the way back down we ran into some more friends! 

It took us three hours to get back down. It's definitely hard on the ole' knees and ankles. I rolled my ankle once, took a break, and walked it off like a pro :). 

(As I'm writing this though, my knees and ankles are real sore)

We slid around a lot walking downward, and our legs felt like jelly. 

I only fell on my butt once though - so that's good.

Yes, people called us "Dukies" and thought we went there. Little did they know that I own zero dry fit long sleeved shirts so I had to raid Jake's closet.


Caught a quick picture of our mountain from the car on the way out of town!

People are crazy to hike these all the time. Seriously. One guy started with us and he was on his way up the THIRD time when we were descending from our first - NUTS. 

I'll post again about our hike for any tips/suggestions (learn from our mistakes) and gear to bring . 

P.S. If you missed our other Colorado adventures be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "older posts" button.