My frind April is sort of a daredevil. She is easily bored by everyday, mundane activities like the standard, Class 1, route up Grays and Torreys. So, she convinced me to do something a little more exciting. I chose Quandary's West Ridge Route. To quote Roach's guide book "HARRY SHIT HERE".

We were heading off to Pueblo to Aprils parents house, so we packed her entire dorm room into my dads Jeep, and headed up. We arrived at Blue lakes rather late in the afternoon, and a classic spring afternoon storm was blowing in. When we got out of the car, we were very surprised to see it was very cold.

We found a campsite on the north side of the upper of the two Blue Lakes. Soon after we'd setup the tent, it began to lightly snow. I was pretty worried the weather was not going to cooperate on this difficult route. By morning it was very cold, but we were greeted by an incredible sunrise.

After I accidentally got a bunch of dirt in our water for oatmeal, we ate and headed north up the steep, icy snowfield. After about an hour, the steepness relented, and we found ourselves an a beautiful basin below the saddle we needed to gain.

The climb up to the saddle gave us a taste of what was to come. We carefully headed up the steep, icy snow. April is much more comfortable on rock than ice, so we stuck to the rock as much as possible. April accidentally dislodged a very large boulder, and we saw it plummet down the ice into the valley below.

Now that we had gained the ridgeline, we could see how far we had to go. It seemed to be quite a way to what seemed to be the summit. However, although it is at 14,000', it is only where the difficulties begin. You must pass many large rock towers along the ridge before you gain Quandary's summit.

The ridgeline was not too difficult, but it did get our adrenaline pumping. Some of the sections were quite steep, and while the exposure was dramatic, it was short, and the climbing was easy. The rock was somewhat rotten, so make sure to test your holds well before continuing.

After about an hour or so of serious climbing, we reached the summit, and sat down for a much needed rest. The summit was a little busy, with many climbers who had ascended the much easier east slopes. After a leisurely lunch, we scouted our intended descent route, Cristo Coulior.

Cristo Coulior is on the large, obvious coulior on the south face of quandary. It looked very steep, and April had never used an ice axe to self arrest before. I have her a quick intro on glissade technique and self arrest, and had her give it a shot near the top of the coulior. She passed the test with flying colors, and we began our descent.

It was absolutely amazing. I have glissaded before, but never somethings that runs almost 3000 vertical feet in a single pitch. We stopped periodically to catch our breaths, and because our butts were really cold. We descended from the summit to the tent in a little less than an hour, and it had taken us four hours on the ascent. This descent method is highly recommended if snow conditions permit, if you ascended the west ridge, or the east ridge, as your car is easily accessible from Blue Lakes Road.