Quandary Peak North Couloir

May 6, 2018

Quandary Peak North Couloir aka Quandary Couloir

14,265’

It was in Patagonia 6 months ago that Laura and I met Ryan while riding a bus to Torres del Paine. We hit it off talking about mountains and routes that we have done and decided that we should get together for a climb in the spring. Ryan is planning to go to Mt. Baker soon so a snow climb seemed to be the correct decision to help him gain some experience and confidence on the slippery terrain. After several phone conversations, we chose a fun couloir that is about 35 – 40 degrees steep and gains around 3,000’ in one snow line and ending at the summit of the Colorado 14er at 14,265’.

Climbing at Garden of the Gods Saturday, Laura and I showed Ryan a few of the classics; Montezuma’s Tower and New Era. We met up with some other friends and ended up at a brewery to fuel up for the next day’s climb.

 

3:30 am and the alarm is sounding so we all get rolling and are driving west by 4 am. With a stop for breakfast, we made the trailhead at 5:45 and were hiking by 6 am.

Along the snow covered McCulloch Gulch road we went for 2 miles before reaching the turnoff into the woods. We tried to keep a slow and steady pace all day, knowing Ryan lives near sea level and would be feeling the effects of elevation. After an hour of hiking we spotted our snow line for the day and made a diagonal up to the base rather than traversing low and crossing around the lake at the bottom. Snow conditions were good and the sun was shining. We knew that it would be a tough day with a lot of elevation gain but also knew that keeping spirits high was super important. Up we continued. Ryan had never experienced anything like this before and was amazed at the steepness, exposure and awesomeness of the climb. Fully motivated and working hard for hours, we summited around 12:45. We relaxed and ate for a bit before tying on trash bags for glissading. The day was warm and the sun shining, so the snow was pretty soft to glissade on but we did get in a few short ones, saving our legs from having to walk the entire distance down the standard east slopes of the mountain. When we reached tree line, Ryan learned what post holing is. Falling into the snow up to your thighs every step is extremely tiring and frustrating. At times we even resorted to crawling because the post holing was too much to bear! The long walk down ended us at the car around 3:00 pm as we relaxed and celebrated our friends first Colorado 14er with a beer!

Mt. Aetna and Taylor Mountain

Mt. Aetna and Taylor Mountain

Turkey Rocks

April 28, 2018

It is snow climbing season here in Colorado but with such a light snow year, Laura and I had a tough time finding something that would be in good climbing condition for the weekend. We settled on the Grand Couloir on Mt. Aetna, a 2,900’ snow climb with a moderate angle of about 35 degrees. Camping on the road near the trailhead, we woke at 5:30 am and were hiking by 6:00. We knew that snow was on the light side but were amazed when the mountain came into view because the couloir was already melted out at the bottom. We hiked up a rock field and reached the start of the continuous snow. Putting on our crampons, we zig zagged up the slope and chose the steepest section we could find, only about 40 degrees, to make the exit of the couloir to the summit more challenging.

We summited the 13,745’ peak at 8:45 am and took a short break. I would have glissaded down the couloir, but Laura decided she that we would be bargain hunting today. 2 for 1, I guess, so off we headed to Taylor Mountain. A short ridge traverse away, we down climbed some snow and then made our way up the rocky slopes to 13,651’ and the summit of Taylor Mountain. I spent some time looking around at all of the different mountain ranges in view – the Sangres, San Juans, Elks and Sawatch right next to us. We identified some peaks we had climbed and then started the walk down the ridge to our car.

We found an east facing slope into a drainage that had some snow so we chose to glissade this and ended up within 100’ of our car once we exited the drainage just before noon. We haven’t had the chance to spend a lot of time at altitude lately, so it definitely felt good to be out in the mountains again.

Sunday we planned to do some rock climbing and chose to head for the South Platte. Turkey Rocks was on the list, so we picked a few routes and headed west once again. We climbed gobbler’s grunt, a 3 pitch 5.9 and jump start, also 5.9. This is about at my limit of trad leading, but it was good practice and nice measurement to see what level we were climbing at before attempting some of our alpine summer peaks.