Quandary Peak

14ers Day 2: (Read Day 1 of our 14ers trek, if you missed it.)

I took the luxury of sleeping in until 5:45 Tuesday morning because we were going to tackle Quandary Peak in the Tenmile Ridge, just south of Breckenridge. At 14,265', it is the 16^th highest peak in the continental U.S. The trail head is much easier to get to... at the cost of being much lower: 10,800', which meant a climb of about 3,500 feet over 3.6 miles, and a round-trip hike of 7.25 miles. We allotted 7 hours for the hike. The lower half was beautiful, coming up through the forest, past wildflower glades and spectacular scenery. Quandary Peak lived up to my expectation for these mountain hikes - the nature of this mountain and surrounding vistas was very different from Mt. Sherman.

View of North Star Mountain (the Western Continental Divide)
from the East Ridge Trail of Quandary Peak. That is Tomas in his orange backpack.
Note the spectacular, deep, blue sky.

Just out of the treeline (near 12,000'), there is a steep grade, consisting of steps made out of stones set in the hill. Just past these steps, we met a large group of young girls (Girl Scouts, we presumed) who were descending. They started their ascent at 2:00AM!
After this, we turned up the ridge, heading west toward the now visible peak, one a half miles ahead and still 2,300 feet higher. You can see the line of hikers stretched out ahead, just starting to tackle the toughest, final leg of the climb.

Quandary Peak rises up above us.  (Challenge: spot Tomas and his orange backpack amongst the climbers at center left.) The climb in the distance is about 1,000' climb in about 6/10 mile - about a 31% grade.

Tomas kept walking while we took a break to drop some layers now that we were in the sun. While I was trudging up that steep slope, a female trail runner zoomed past me. That level of fitness is pretty humbling. I rationalized it by telling myself, "She's not carrying a 25 pound pack... or 25 extra years" Yeah, right.

A mountain goat ignores the hikers on the Quandary Peak trail

I kept on moving on and up. I found a good, steady pace for the toughest part of the ascent, stopping to take pictures every once in a while. (I carried my Canon 40D DSLR and a Tamron 10-24mm wide angle lens in a camera case attached to the front straps of my backpack.)
I reached the crowded summit shortly after Tomas, after four hours of hiking. It was pretty cold and windy up top, but it was worth it—the view from the summit was simply spectacular.

The view from atop Quandary Peak. Nothing higher than us anywhere close by.

The 2-½ hour trek down was long and pretty hard on my old knees; my leg muscles were shaking when I had to step down. Happily, I didn't need any Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) on this or any other day of hiking.

Tomas and your humble author at the summit of Quandary Peak.
I can easily say that Quandary Peak was my favorite hike of our three days.

The U.S. Coast & Geodedit Survey marker at the top of Quandary Peak

Day 2 synopsis: Hike distance: 7.25 miles; elapsed time: 6:50; elevation gain: 3,500'; average grade: 18.6%. GPS track. Lessons learned: Moleskin is an essential piece of gear; there is always someone who is stronger/faster and I'm OK with that; when rating trails, "moderate" in Colorado does not mean the same as "moderate" in North Carolina.