Quandary Peak

Route: North Gully aka Quandary Couloir
Posted On: 4/27/2025, By: ajeski
Info: Hiked the East Ridge to the summit. Conditions were perfect. It truly was a bluebird day. Sunny, warm, no clouds in the sky and no wind. We skied the Quandary Couloir. The couloir was filled in very nicely. You have to navigate a bit of rocks at the entrance, but it is well filled in after that. Lost a hiking pole on the hike up the East Ridge. Let me know if you found it. Beautiful day in the mountains! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/23/2025, By: Jay521
Info: I would add to Nilaoire's comment that later in the day (cuz I'm not near as fast as she is), it was helpful to have snowshoes on the way down. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/22/2025, By: nilaoire
Info: Short patches of ice at the beginning of the trail. 'Soft packed ' snow all the way to 13400ft, broke through a few times but I never felt the need to put on snowshoes. Nice skiing conditions. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/16/2025, By: nilaoire
Info: I started late 750 am, as the plan was to only go up to 13300ft. Conditions were as expected due to the recent temps and lack of recent snow. Firm with no need for snowshoes on the way up. Navigated patches of ice at beginning of the trail, so didn't use spikes. The decent around 10 am, I single 'legged' post holed a few times below 12000ft, but what do you expect at that time. Spikes on the way down allowed for a swifter decent. Saw only 1 other hiker with snowshoes, I was happy to carry but not need mine. Summit Rescue out again this morning. They were busy with call outs due to folks postholing on Quandary last weekend. 

Route: East Ridge to Quandary Couloir
Posted On: 4/15/2025, By: ericahlstedt
Info: Continuous snow besides one short rock band up high from parking to summit and down the North Couloir. Quite windy up high so conditions never really softened up. Couloir was quite firm and chalky. Ski crampons useful on the final uphill to the summit. Mccollough gulch road was nice corn around noon. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/14/2025, By: HubbleSR
Info: Conditions were more or less awesome. Completely packed snow all the way to the top using only microspikes - Large gusts of wind towards the top and minimal cloud cover. Really bad post holing right above the tree line after it got warmer. 

Route: South Gully aka Cristo Couloir
Posted On: 4/12/2025, By: jeffh7
Info: Started around 5:15am and was 2hr45m car to summit up the east ridge. Hard pack in the morning which made skinning quick. We booted the last portion of the ridge adjacent to the upper bowl because skinning was tedious. Waited an hour at the summit and dropped into Cristo Couloir at 9am. Was able to ski from the summit pretty easily. Was still pretty hard pack and crusty, but I’d imagine if we had waited another hour or two it would be nice corn. There was a lot of wind and the clouds covered the sun for the first hour of the morning so it seemed to be warming slowly compared to a similar aspect and elevation in the Elk Range that we skied the day prior that was perfect corn by 9am. Had afternoon plans so we had to go down. Was able to ski down most of the road but had to take our skis off and walk nearby the dam. Fun day regardless, lots of people out there and the parking lot was full when we got back to the car at 10am. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/10/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Didn't use skins or traction all day. Not too icy as well. Nice boot pack trail to the summit. There is enough continuous snow to ski from the summit back down to the parking lot if you exit the upper bowl onto the East ridge. Beautiful bluebird day! 

Route: North Gully aka Quandary Couloir
Posted On: 4/7/2025, By: chrisharkness
Info: Skied up East Ridge, down the couloir. Follow a GPS track for the proper entry point. There are a lot of ski tracks that go further down which leads to a fairly gnarly looking descent looking at it from below. Perfect conditions today as well. Windless. Very stable snow, but definitely some no-fall zones. A bit of a trudge to get back to the East ridge trailhead once at the bottom of the gully, but not too bad. 

Route: North Gully aka Quandary Couloir
Posted On: 4/6/2025, By: MountainManta1
Info: We were one of 3 or 4 parties whom skied the north couloir today. On the ascent, we skinned up the east ridge to the summit. Ski crampons were helpful for the top few hundred feet (though it was passable without them and most weren't using, I was happy to have mine). The north couloir had a bit of wind slab to navigate. Beyond that, it was basically winter conditions but without much p-slab concern. Entry is a little boney on an initial traverse/cut in. Some crust is present in places below, but overall, it was pretty great. The east bowl and ridge had a ton of traffic as usual and well filled in/in nice form for skiing today. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/23/2025, By: jeffh7
Info: Skiing on Quandary was phenomenal today, we had powder nearly top to bottom. Started at 8:25, summit at 11:35. Was able to skin all the way to the summit and ski the same way back down keeping our skis on the entire time. It was super windy today and a lot of snow transport. Very obvious trench to treeline. After that, any resemblance of tracks became windblown on our ascent. We set a skin track up the ridge adjacent to the upper bowl and another group set a bootpack. Saw lots of other hikers / skiers on our way down so I'd imagine there will be a pretty established trail by the end of the day if the wind doesn't sweep it over. Stayed out of the bowls. Cristo couloir looked pretty filled in. Both of those descent options seemed pretty wind loaded. 

Route: South Gully aka Cristo Couloir
Posted On: 3/8/2025, By: isaacbauman
Info: We started from Blue Lake road closure at 7am and summited at 1pm. The approach to the base of Cristo was doable with skins or snowshoes, flotation needed for sure. The couloir itself was not the right conditions to ski or boot up directly, due to the wind slab. We dodged this issue by skirting to the sides and sticking to the stable rocks. Crampons absolutely required. Honestly, would not recommend. Returned to parking lot just after 3pm, took the standard east ridge down. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/3/2025, By: Tlorbets
Info: Weather was ridiculously perfect. I was surprised there were only around 7 cars in lot at 6am because it's critical to get an early start if you wish not to post hole on the way down due to the rapid warm up. Started at 6:30am returned at 11:30am. I only wore micro spikes and the trail was hard packed all the of the way up. I was surprised I did not post hole once on the way down, sun was hot and started melting. Winds were minimal to none except for the usual section on ridge. Lots of skiers enjoying the day on Quandary. Conditions will change after Tuesdays storm coming through. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/1/2025, By: butlerer
Info: Absolutely beautiful day. 44° at the car at 1:40 pm when we got back; 19° at 7:45 am when we left. Trail is packed from the TH to the summit, and my dog made it just fine--with the help of a winter jacket bc he's a pit and is cold most of the winter. Brought snowshoes but didn't need them, but definitely needed spikes, and poles were helpful. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/24/2025, By: abhinav7241
Info: Conditions were great.. i dint use my snowshoes even though i took it with me. The snow was well packed all the way up till the tree line. From the tree line up till the flat part there patches of deep snow but you can maneuver your way.. Very windy at times other than that great hike great views..