Quandary West Ridge Difficulty
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Ebenton
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Re: Quandary West Ridge Difficulty
A father-son duo had a route finding issue and needed a bit of a rescue. https://denvergazette.com/outtherecolor ... 326f3.html
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Lonewolf88
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Re: Quandary West Ridge Difficulty
Totally with you on this, IlNoise! I am a novice climber at best. I've not done any of the truly harrowing peaks (Capitol, the Crestones, the Bells, etc.). The trickiest up until yesterday had been the Loft route on Longs followed by the Sawtooth from Bierstadt to Evansky--both done solo. That all changed with the West Ridge, yesterday (also solo).ILnoise wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2024 5:35 pm Okay, to the point: getting through the west ridge seemed far gnarlier to me than the route description let on... My experience with the route started changing drastically once finally gaining the ridge to deal with the crux towers... Overall, I think most would agree those tower sections are difficult...
Not sure if I was off-route; it's entirely possible. Halfway through the class 3 portion I found myself in a near panic. I had climbed up into a nasty little spot just below one of the towers. Rather vertical with lots of loose sand and scree, and just about every rock I tested pulled out and tumbled down several hundred feet.
The thought of downclimbing it was unsettling. Thankfully, I remembered the wisdom of a friend (a 14er-finisher) who taught me what little I do know. All I had to do was find a solid place for my feet so that I could relax. (It took a couple minutes!) "Breath, look around, make a call." A good route suddenly appeared to me, and I climbed it without much difficulty to the top of the tower. What a GREAT feeling it was to get out of that spot!
The other adrenaline-dumping move for me occurred at the top of the crux. There was no way I could shimmy up that crevice with my back pack and front pack. (I'd probably still be stuck there right now if I had tried.) I actually thought about taking one or both off and tossing it/them up ahead of me. Instead, I chose to navigate around to the left and climb up from the outside. You'll recall that it sticks out a bit, and my front pack really exaggerated this. But there were solid handholds, allowing me to basically swing my leg around and hit an immovable step. When I finally reached the top and could see the large crowd on the summit, I was shaking. My heart had raced to about 150bpm. I sat there, dumbfounded for several minutes about what I had just done (and what I could have done, but thankfully didn't!).
Being a noob, I'm sure I made it more difficult that it otherwise would have been. As they say, "Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions." Whatever the case, I'm with you. It was "far gnarlier" than I expected. Not that the route description was off, but that my interpretation of it was skewed due to my limited experience.
Last edited by Lonewolf88 on Mon Jul 14, 2025 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BillMiddlebrook
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Re: Quandary West Ridge Difficulty
You’ve called yourself a “noob” several times so I’m wondering why you would take this route in the first place. It’s clearly marked as Class 3, with the Route Finding risk at “Considerable” as well as a high exposure rating.
Glad you made it ok!
Not all routes on Quandary are easy.
Glad you made it ok!
Not all routes on Quandary are easy.
Proud to be against fascism, racism, xenophobia and stupidity.
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Lonewolf88
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Re: Quandary West Ridge Difficulty
Thanks. So am I!BillMiddlebrook wrote: ↑Sun Jul 13, 2025 5:24 pm You’ve called yourself a “noob” several times so I’m wondering why you would take this route in the first place. It’s clearly marked as Class 3, with the Route Finding risk at “Considerable” as well as a high exposure rating.
Glad you made it ok!
Not all routes on Quandary are easy.
I know that most folks here are far more experienced, but they probably weren't always that way. I'm guessing at some point they moved from the relative comfort of Class 1 and 2 and made the leap to 3. That's where I am. When picking a route, I actively look for "not easy". But I know my limitations, too. I would not climb Capitol right now even if I could be teleported to the lake and the weather conditions were perfect. That is far too demanding for my skill level.
So why did I take this route in the first place? I've been up Longs twice (Keyhole and Loft). I did the Sawtooth. All those are Class 3, so when I read the description I figured it would be more or less the same. The crux on West Ridge did remind me of the climb from the Loft into Keplinger Couloir, but most of that was downward whereas the West Ridge demanded more upward climbing. Each was a challenge, but I'd have to give the latter a significant bump up on difficulty.
Do I regret it? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Of the 10 fourteeners I have climbed, that was by far the most exhilarating. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat (and probably will).
