Quite the Quandary - My first 14'er

Back in May when I realized I would barely be home for weekends in June, I asked my friend Morgan if she wanted to go camping the weekend of June 10th. She said, Sure! and then "hey, lets do a 14'er!" I had mistakenly told her my goal for this summer was to summit a 14'er - one of the 52 mountains in Colorado which extend above 14,000 feet.

Along with our friend Chris, we set out for our campsite along Blue Lake just south of Breckenridge, set up my tent by headlamp, and hit the hay. This was the view from our open tent door - not too shabby!


After a lively debate over what time we should get up, we compromised for a 5am wake up call. Per usual, I barely slept, but was toasty warm in my sleeping bag, even though the temp was probably around 30 degrees. This was my first foray into camping and hiking without a campfire for food, so I watched and took mental notes for what works/doesn't work and started to learn the ropes. Lesson learned: always bring a spoon and cup.

We were at the trailhead for Quandary's east ridge trail by 6:45 and within the first 100 yards I thought "why is this a good idea?" Much like running, the first little bit just plain hurts. My lungs burned, my heart raced, and my butt muscles yelled "Why aren't you on the couch - it's Sunday!" To add to the fun of my first 14'er, I was wearing my new boots, which I hadn't broken in yet. The first mile was filled with a few aches and pains from the boots, but by the end of the hike, I was confident the boots will serve me well for a long while. I also put duct tape on my heels, big toes, and baby toes to prevent blisters - and it worked like a charm!

View from whence we came

Just about the time where I started feeling confident and all warmed up, we hit the snow. I had borrowed Chris's girlfriend's snowshoes, which were strapped to my back, waiting anxiously to be used with only one hitch: I've never snowshoed before. Oops! After a quick lesson, we hit the first snow ridge and I got the hang of it. I like snowshoeing, but perhaps not as much at a 60% slope at 12,000 feet. Holy calf workout.

Me and Mo, with Quandary in the background

The rest of the 2 miles up the mountain would require the shoes to prevent postholing - when your foot goes straight down into the melting snow. Even with the snowshoes, we still postholed quite a bit.

On the way up, I was definitely the slowest. I would go about 20-50 feet, then stop and catch my breath, then keep on keeping on. It was slow going, but I was moving along. I had been warned about altitude sickness so was drinking water every time I stopped.

This is what Quandary looks like:

We were hiking along the ridgeline and, while I knew there would be two peaks, I was still crestfallen when I came up over the first one and saw how far and how steep the path to the summit was. I was hurting. The headache I'd been fighting with water was finally surfacing and every time I had more water, my stomach screamed "no mas!" and I was getting nauseous. At numerous times, I thought I might boot all over the snow.

So I made it to the first peak, right before it swales into the summit. At that point Morgan and I decided to sit and eat and see if I rallied. I did not. I probably could have pressed on for a bit further, but I didn't want to get sick closer to the summit and be a burden on someone to help me get down (we had 1,200 vertical feet and one mile to go). Chris kept on to the summit and it took him 5 hours to go from the trailhead to the summit. He said that once he got to the steep incline right below the summit, people were moving at the pace I was moving at around 12,500. I think I made the right decision.

When I got home, I was exhausted and slept for a good long while. I was still downing water, but had a bad headache, racing heartbeat, and upset stomach. A good night's rest got rid of most of these, but confirmed to me that 13,000 is still some good altitude.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't summit, but also realized that hey, I've only hiked three times in Colorado so far, and before yesterday, the highest was at 9,000. This was also fairly early in the season to do a 14'er, with more snowpack than Morgan had ever hiked in before. It was a hard hike. Mostly we were surrounded by people "skinning up" the mountain - hiking up with skins on their alpine skis and then skiing down (crazy people!). By the end of the summer, I want to summit a 14'er, but maybe I'll hike a little bit in high altitude before my next attempt.