My first 14er adventure of the year took me 10 miles south of Breckenridge to Hoosier Pass and a popular winter climb, Quandary Peak. At 14,265 ft it is the 13th highest mountain in the state and has some very nice skiing opportunities. The gulleys leading down and to the left in the above photo show the Cristo Couloir and its two twins, which are some of the longest and most sustained 45 degree pitches on the 14ers. The Cristo is a classic couloir that should be on every CO ski mountaineers to do list. The day started off leaving Boulder at 530am just in time to grab an egg sandwich from Einsteins on the way out of town. We finally arrived at the trailhead at 8am, got our gear together and headed off into the woods.
The climb through the woods was peaceful and easy. Once we neared the top of treeline, the snow became hollow, and unsupportive and it took me a very long time to make switchbacks the rest of the way to the east ridge.
It looks as if Austen is reaching the summit right now at the top center of this photo, but the real summit is at the very left edge of the pic, and still 2 miles away.
Two hours later, and the summit ridge was finally in site. This was still a daunting site for me since by this point I had large bleeding blisters on both of my feet, and was not looking forward to another 800 vertical feet of climbing.
At this point a large herd of/herd of large mountain goats joined, and led us all the way to the summit. At one point we were about 30 feet away from them and they seemed so used to people, they just could not have cared less about our presence.
And the camera died on this last summit celebration photo, so I got no pics of the descent. We skiied off of the summit, and had to downclimb some loose scree and ice too get into the entrance of the Cristo Couloir, which stays at 45 degrees for almost 2500 vertical feet. The snow was unbreakable windslab and not easy to gain a edge on, but fun and leads right out onto the road where we skiied all the way back to the car. It was a fun day and we were back to the car in 5 and a half hours. We are in a bad avalanche cycle right now and Im waiting for the weather to clear, but Ill be back at it again sometime next week. Pray for snow, and check for updates in a week or so.
My first 14er adventure of the year took me 10 miles south of Breckenridge to Hoosier Pass and a popular winter climb, Quandary Peak. At 14,265 ft it is the 13th highest mountain in the state and has some very nice skiing opportunities. The gulleys leading down and to the left in the above photo show the Cristo Couloir and its two twins, which are some of the longest and most sustained 45 degree pitches on the 14ers. The Cristo is a classic couloir that should be on every CO ski mountaineers to do list. The day started off leaving Boulder at 530am just in time to grab an egg sandwich from Einsteins on the way out of town. We finally arrived at the trailhead at 8am, got our gear together and headed off into the woods.
The climb through the woods was peaceful and easy. Once we neared the top of treeline, the snow became hollow, and unsupportive and it took me a very long time to make switchbacks the rest of the way to the east ridge.
It looks as if Austen is reaching the summit right now at the top center of this photo, but the real summit is at the very left edge of the pic, and still 2 miles away.
Two hours later, and the summit ridge was finally in site. This was still a daunting site for me since by this point I had large bleeding blisters on both of my feet, and was not looking forward to another 800 vertical feet of climbing.
At this point a large herd of/herd of large mountain goats joined, and led us all the way to the summit. At one point we were about 30 feet away from them and they seemed so used to people, they just could not have cared less about our presence.
And the camera died on this last summit celebration photo, so I got no pics of the descent. We skiied off of the summit, and had to downclimb some loose scree and ice too get into the entrance of the Cristo Couloir, which stays at 45 degrees for almost 2500 vertical feet. The snow was unbreakable windslab and not easy to gain a edge on, but fun and leads right out onto the road where we skiied all the way back to the car. It was a fun day and we were back to the car in 5 and a half hours. We are in a bad avalanche cycle right now and Im waiting for the weather to clear, but Ill be back at it again sometime next week. Pray for snow, and check for updates in a week or so.
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