Mount Quandary, Mount Quandry. I've seen it both ways and I'm still not sure which is correct!
Originally we had planned on hiking the shorter Mount
Quandary route on July 3, and then tackling the longer Mount Massive route on
Independence Day. After checking the
weather, the fourth had more chance of
rain and Rob's priority was Mount Massive so we hiked that first and
rescheduled Mount Q for the following day.
After surviving the
11 hours on Mount Massive and all of the excitement of getting caught in a
storm, we managed to get dinner and the negotiations about hiking Quandary in
the morning began. Rob didn't think we'd get enough sleep because it was
already late and we'd be getting up early. I argued that we wouldn't need to
start as early because it was a shorter hike,
and that we could always set the alarm and make a game time decision in
the morning. Rob agreed and reiterated that he was pleased with finishing
Massive and Quandary would be a nice-to-have but not mandatory.
Rob takes a bit more
time to get ready in the morning so he arranged for another wake up call from
the hotel. I admit, I silently groaned a bit when the phone rang. 20 minutes later my phone alarm went off and
it was time to get up and make a decision.
We discussed forgoing the Quandary hike and going to Garden of the Gods
instead but soon realized that we'd be spending most of the day in the car
getting to and from Garden of the Gods and we'd rather spend that time
hiking. I repacked my pack-- a little
less water and less weight this time, but still heavy with the camera and the
water I did carry. Off we went to summit
our second 14er in as many days.
Mount Massive had
been rated a "2" on the difficulty scale, and Mount Quandary was rated a "1"
despite achieving the same elevation change in about half the distance. If you look up the difficulty ratings, a "1" is supposed to be walk up
trail on level ground. Obviously when
you're climbing 4,000 feet in 3.5 miles, it's not level in the sense that
you're on flat ground, but I'd assume the trail was well groomed with a lot of
switchbacks. Indeed, the beginning of
the trail looked like this:
I had estimated it
would take us 4 hours to reach the top and two hours to get down. More time to get up because of how hard it
gets to breathe climbing that fast in a short time and needing to take breaks,
but must faster coming down because the extra oxygen would feel great and those
groomed trails would be easy to navigate without worrying about falling.
So far, so
good! I actually felt pretty good given
the previous day's hike and ready to tackle this mountain!
The terrain soon
changed and started to get more rocky.
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| You can see from this picture all of the people on top of the ridge. No, that's not the top of the mountain. It's not even close |
Once we reached the
ridge, it became very clear that there was *nowhere* a girl could answer the
call of nature without flashing everyone on the mountain. And this was a popular hike with full vantage
both up and down trail. :(
The trail kept
getting rockier and rockier. In fact,
there was no trail to speak of, at least
not by any definition I know.
Occasionally there were large man made piles of rocks sticking out of
all the other jumbles of rocks, and these let you know you were mostly heading
in the right direction. On either side
of you, if you went too far there were steep slides into oblivion that were
definitely not where you wanted to go.
We joked with
another hiker who was descending that this climb is like one of those
"Choose your own Adventure" books where you pick a path and go to
page 92 to continue on with your hike.
We were also starting to see a lot of the same people… a group of three
couples in their early 20s who would leap frog us, then rest for 10 minutes and then leapfrog us
again, and "old navy
sweatshirt" guy who actually wasn't
there alone but sure seemed to be.
Somewhere between
13,000 and 13,400 feet I suddenly started having a really really difficult
time. I threatened to drop my pack and
come back for it, surely without all the
weight I'd be as nimble as a mountain goat bounding up these rocks. Rob talked me out of it and convinced me that
mountain rodents would eat holes in my pack if I left it. He offered to take
two water bottles from me, so that
helped. Maybe another 200 feet up, he took the camera as well. It was maybe five minutes before he told me
that wow, the camera is heavy. I'm not
sure if it was the steeper climb today or just the cumulative effect of the
week's activities and the hike the day before, but I continued to struggle up
the slope and rested a lot. I should
have taken another Diamox, as I had only
been taking 125mg once per day after Leadville,
but I didn't. Rob stopped and
brought out his pulse-oximeter which somehow measures the oxygenization
percentage of your blood. His measurement was 99%. Mine was 70%! This is not a good number.
The closer we got to the top, the less sure I was about wanting to get to the top. I felt much worse than at Mount Massive, this was supposed to be fun, and I was getting extremely concerned about coming down without slipping or twisting an ankle. However, no one in our group ever quits so pressing on!
Right before the summit, hikers have to cross an area of snow which is quite slick. Mostly we tried to stay in the footprints of previous hikers but I watched a couple of people descending who were sliding on the slush.
Finally we were at the top!!! Including the extra quarter mile from the parking lot to the trailhead, we were under 3 hours and 50 minutes so my estimates had finally been right. What a great view.
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| Proof: It's Quandary. But the tshirts say Quandry! |
We spent 17 minutes at the top and I felt normal again. Time to descend over all that rock:
On the way down I used only one hiking pole, as I find with two poles I'm always trying to figure out where to put them and then losing my balance over the rocks. We had to be careful because the poles could get stuck between the rocks which might cause them to break. I descended much faster, hopping from rock to rock along the ridge the best I could given I was in hiking boots and carrying a pack. Rob took a more conservative approach and used both poles and descended at a safer speed.
We had seen some goats from afar during the trip up, but on the way down we got up and close and personal with them. They're BIG. You don't want one of them pushing you or you will definitely go flying off the mountain!
Unlike Mount Massive, there were no storms today. Instead, the lack of shade became an issue as the sun beat down on us. I reapplied sunscreen twice on the way down. Remember how a girl shouldn't flash the entire mountain? Part of my hurry to get down was to find a nice tree. Unfortunately, the first concealed tree group I found, the group of 20-somethings decided to stop RIGHT THERE on the trail and have a snack. I've been holding for 3 or 4 hours now, but on we go. I lose sight of Rob for a bit behind me but I'm on a mission. I'm stopping to check every once in a while. Old Navy sweatshirt guy passes me. then the 20somethings catch back up. And the boys pick the next tree grove (only the second one available since the summit) for their own business and I wait impatiently for them to go on down the trail. That group of trees was very well watered and popular from what I saw.
Rob caught up at this point and also thought it was a very nice set of trees and then it was onward down the trail. Finally made it back under the shade which felt amazing!!!! It had taken us just over 3 hours coming down, not nearly the time difference I expected between up (against elevation changes and going up) versus down (easier breathing, but still having to pick my way through uneven terrain and slippery rocks).
Total time: 7 hours 12 min from parking lot to top, taking pictures at top, back to parking lot.
Calories Burned: My garmin thinks only 1800, but it also thinks I was only moving for 3 hours and 11 minutes! I guess when you move so slow and you're moving up rather than forward, it has a hard time figuring out that you're not just sitting on your butt. I think I burned about 2500.
Calories Consumed: 475 (one payday , half of a Pro Bar, 20oz Gatorade G2, and some water).
This time my legs were screaming from the abuse, so we found a nice stream for an ice bath! Rob declined to participate in sitting in snow runoff temperature waters.
That's it! two 14ers in two days, all in the same week as Leadville Heavy Half trail run. I've learned that while I don't get sick, and I don't necessarily get a bad headache, I am definitely affected by altitude but I'm okay if I get to level out. Staying on top of the diamox meds in Kili is mandatory for me.
Water Purification: The porters will be boiling our water for safety, but it's recommended we take a backup option. I've opted for the CamelBak AllClear water bottle purifier. It's a .75L water bottle (quite similar to a nalgeen bottle ) that comes with two lids -- one is a stand cap and the other one contains a UV light that kills the stuff in water. It seems the most compact option and less work (there are other purifiers you have to pump water through by hand, and iodine tablets take 30 minutes but this is done in 60 seconds).
