Fourteeners

Quandary Peak is an interesting mountain. On the one hand, an easy and safe winter route on a 14er means that crowds are the norm all year long. On the other hand, beyond the standard East ridge route there is a lot to be said for the mountain,

Most people don’t know about Sean Crossen, but they should. He was one of Colorado’s 14er-skiing pioneers in the early to mid-2000’s. Long before legendary Chris Davenport decided he would try to ski all of Colorado’s fourteeners, Sean Crossen was out there, on cumbersome old gear, exploring new routes on these high peaks.

Hitting the ridge is the moment of truth. There is only one way off the summit on skis – descending east on 60° snow above an enormous cliff. If you fall anywhere between the summit and the point where we were standing, you go in the ground. That’s really all there is to it. There’s no real escape route – your only options are to downclimb what you came up (arguably more dangerous than just skiing it) or downclimb the NW ridge, where routefinding is tricky especially since it’s not the route you came up. Once you begin the final push to the summit, you are committed.

It’s August, and it’s that time of year when many people start to look ahead, dreaming of snowflakes and skiing. For me, I pretty much think of skiing all the time year-round, even though I don’t typically ski year round. Which is why this post hurts the most. I won’t be skiing this coming winter… or spring. That bites hard into the deepest part of my core. Skiing is my being. It’s who I am. It’s what I do. Perhaps that’s why I waited so long to write the report. Although, I’d like to say it was because I decided to wait until people were having thoughts of skiing again. But in reality, I had a conundrum on Conundrum. And it will be my last ski for a very long time….

I first skied Quandary Peak in January 2007. Since we encountered windy conditions and the snowpack was not totally reliable,