Quandary Peak

First 14'er

Departed the trailhead at about 6:45am, on the East Slpoes Trail with partly cloudy skies. The beginning of the hike is on a well worn trail through the woods, which climbs up to treeline and merges into a long talus field which unfortunately lasts all the way to the summit. The skies became cloudy up until just below treeline and then we encountered some light rain which lasted maybe 15 minutes. The hike up the talus slope was long and seemed to be neverending, I kept hoping it would turn back into a dirt trail at the next ridge, but no luck. The temps were mostly in the 40's with moderate winds up on the ridge. It took us Minnesotians 3 hours to summit. The summit is rather broad with some rock walls for you to sit under for wind protection. The views on top are great, you can see tons of peaks, most of which had quite a bit of snow. There was a bit of snow remaining on Quandary, but not on the East Slopes trail. We stayed up top for about 20 minutes before leisurely making our way back down, taking pictures and stopping to look at the wildflowers, etc. Great fist 14'er, although I would not have said that if you ask me on my way up in the middle of the talus field.