Bringing in the New Year

I started 2009 off on a wonderful note with a ski descent of 14,265 foot Mt. Quandary. The weather report called for a high of 8 degrees with a wind chill of -27. Andy, Ryan, and I were prepared for the worst, but it turned out to not be nearly that bad.

After ascending the east ridge and reaching the summit around noon, Andy and I began our ski descent of the northeast bowls while we sent Ryan, on snowshoes, back down the ridge. The skiing up high was typical - windblown and highly variable. After descending 2500 vertical feet, we reached the treeline where the snow conditions changed from this highly variable awfulness to 8 inches of wonderful powder. The final 1000 feet of our ski descent was splendid. Ryan cruised down the ridge and we only beat him back to the car by about 5 minutes.


Andy with the summit in the background. It was too cold to take skiing photos.

Quandary is now the only 14er I've climbed 3 times, each time followed by a ski descent.