Quandary West Ridge?

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
    For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
MitchellS
Posts: 37
Joined: 6/27/2014
14ers: 14 
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by MitchellS »

I did it today, I'll have the Trip Report finished soon!

To answer your question, no, the snow can be avoided.

I posted the Trip report. The standard route would probably still require snow gear because there is snow on the basin. It is softening up though, so I wouldn't even want to take that route anyway.
User avatar
pdenman33
Posts: 7
Joined: 9/26/2012
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by pdenman33 »

I was up there about 2 weeks ago. It was fine. Such a fun climb
xDoogiex
Posts: 5
Joined: 7/18/2014
14ers: 32 
13ers: 16
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by xDoogiex »

What's the best way down after doing the west ridge? Seems like most people go down the Christo couloir or down the east ridge
User avatar
swadmin
Posts: 76
Joined: 8/27/2008
14ers: 58  10 
13ers: 174 8
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by swadmin »

This time of the year, east ridge is way better than Cristo couloir.
xDoogiex wrote:What's the best way down after doing the west ridge? Seems like most people go down the Christo couloir or down the east ridge
User avatar
JimR
Posts: 502
Joined: 8/29/2006
14ers: 56 
13ers: 73
Trip Reports (8)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by JimR »

We went down the Cristo Couloir (a couple years ago). CC is fairly steep, loose, and quick. Pick your poison.
I have more age than experience, more experience than knowledge, and more knowledge than wisdom.
Yet somehow I usually make it back to the car safely; and oftentimes, so do the people that I'm with.
User avatar
MitchellS
Posts: 37
Joined: 6/27/2014
14ers: 14 
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by MitchellS »

Christo would be a quite the challenge, especially on the descent. I looked at this option when I was up there, and it looked pretty steep. It's probably a mix of patchy snow and loose rock now, so have fun... I took the East Ridge out and enjoyed it! If you want to eliminate the 5 mile loop back to the Blue Lakes TH, you can probably hitch hike back once on either one of the roads. 3 cars passed me on the walk back to the TH.
User avatar
Mike Shepherd
Posts: 260
Joined: 4/21/2014
14ers: 12 
13ers: 5
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by Mike Shepherd »

The Cristo couloir was pretty much on its way out as of July 3 when I climbed it. How does the west ridge of Quandary compare to Kelso's Ridge in terms of difficulty? I thought Kelso's Ridge was one of the funnest things I've ever done.
Friends don't let friends wear microspikes
User avatar
JB99
Posts: 1217
Joined: 6/23/2007
14ers: 41 
13ers: 8
Trip Reports (21)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by JB99 »

Mike Shepherd wrote:How does the west ridge of Quandary compare to Kelso's Ridge in terms of difficulty?
The west ridge is more difficult by a decent measure. Kelso ridge is straightforward and the difficulties are short. The west ridge has a good deal of route finding, more sustained scrambling, and bigger consequences for mistakes.

That said, the west ridge is one of my favorite routes. I'd just say it's a good step up in difficulty compared to Kelso.
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not."
User avatar
Tatra
Posts: 38
Joined: 9/19/2011
14ers: 58 
13ers: 18
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by Tatra »

I think Kelso and West Ridge are very similar in hiking difficulty. Both great introduction to scrambling class 3!
User avatar
forbins_mtn
Posts: 913
Joined: 6/13/2011
14ers: 28  2 
13ers: 11
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by forbins_mtn »

I think the West Ridge is harder than Kelso too. However, we took some spicier options just for fun. You can get into some serious trouble on the north side of the ridge that would have some pretty serious consequences. Kelso is nothing more than a straight forward Class 3 route following the ridge line
User avatar
polar
Posts: 1256
Joined: 8/12/2013
14ers: 2 
Trip Reports (1)
 

Re: Quandary West Ridge?

Post by polar »

MitchellS wrote:I'm considering the West Ridge and possibly doubling with the Bierstadt-Sawtooth-Evans loop next Tuesday for a high quality day of class 3 hiking.
This sounds like a great plan! I'm going to try it this weekend... except I've done Tour d'Abyss already, but I haven't done Kelso Ridge, so I'll do that one instead. I'm all about packing as much scrambling in one day as possible.
"Getting to the bottom, OPTIONAL. Getting to the top, MANDATORY!" - The Wisest Trail Sign
Post Reply