Had we attempted to hike Quandary Peak the first week of living in Colorado, it’s doubtful that we would have made it to the top. Yet we can say we did summit Quandary Peak, which has a height of 14,265 feet. With a gain of 3,000 feet MB and I set out to do something we had never done, which was to climb a fourteener.
After some restless sleep on my part, I woke at 4:30 to make the coffee and cook breakfast for my sleeping beauty. We got on the road by 5:30 so we could get a head start on the typical weekend crowds which would fill up the side of the road near the trailhead. After a little difficulty finding the turn-off to the trailhead access, we found ourselves parking right at the sign post for the trailhead alongside a few other cars, a sign that we would be among the first to reach the summit this day. Little did we realize just how tough it would be to get up to the top.
MB and I quickly passed through the alpine environment, encountering a couple of mule deer set against the backdrop of Quandary Peak and the falling moon. Eventually we reached the tundra and the toughest part of the hike, which was the navigation of all these rock steps. We rarely stepped on exposed dirt the entire way to the top and as we got closer to the summit, the more we struggled with each step. MB struggled more than I did with the altitude, most likely due to my physical training as a surfer, which requires going without oxygen for up to a minute or more at times. Yet the story would be different on the way down…
Looking at the last section of the climb, MB and I looked at ourselves and wondered what the hell were we thinking. Yet, we presevered and I told MB that we were almost there. This last section truly was a test of our endurance and drive to reach the top. There were times when we questioned ourselves as novice mountaineers, yet we didn’t want to say we turned back before reaching the top.
14,265 feet. We did it. We finally reached the summit and found ourselves at the top of the world. There’s nothing like the feeling of achieving something that not many people have ever considered.
After eating sandwiches, signing the register, and having our own little photo shoot, we eventually made our way back down. Now here came the hard part for me. My right knee started feeling as if it would give out, making the descent what seemed to be the hardest thing I had to do in my life. There was a saying which I heard on the Discovery Channel about a group of hikers in Africa. It went along something like this: “You have the choice of going up a mountain, but there’s no choice about going down the mountain.” That saying echoed in my mind as we descended further down along the rocky trail.
A moment along the descent took my mind off the pain was when we came across the local mountain goat, which seemed accustomed to the human element. After a few snapshots, we continued down, and after what seemed to be five hours we made it back to the car. All in all, the round trip took about 6 hours. Not bad for a 6.66 mile hile (you got that right.)
Where will we go next? That remains to be seen… – AVR
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