Our wake up call was at 4:00 a.m. this morning to drive over to climb this peak. We arrived at the trailhead at around 5:40 and began our hike with our headlights at 5:50. We went early , just in case of a rainstorm in the afternoon, we wanted to not be stuck above treeline.
The small parking lot right by the trailhead had 7 cars in it and it was full. We walked with a nice family who were worried and wanted to make sure this was the "easiest" trail available. I assured them it was, thanks to my extensive internet research on the trail. They later beat us by a solid hour........
Quandary Peak is known for being a beginner 14er. However, everyone that has climbed any 14ers will agree that there are no easy 14ers out there. Seriously, this is tough stuff.
The sun then began to rise and we caught the first glimpses of this gorgeous scenery!
Soon enough, we were almost above treeline (most of the hike is above treeline). Not only did the plants disappear and we were just left with rocks, but the oxygen noticeably started to disappear as well.
We stopped here for a quick breakfast to enjoy the view in the next photo. I was using every opportunity for a break. Holy Cow. At this point in the trek, there still weren't a lot of people out - yet.
In the next picture, I was getting so excited. I could see what I thought was the summit, praise the Lord we were almost done.
It was actually a false summit, and we had much farther to go.
Yeah, I was ready to turn around.
The last part of the climb was the worst part I thought, so I stopped taking pictures. It was the worst part because I was having so much trouble breathing I would have to stop for a few seconds every 10 steps.
But finally, we made it! What a rush!
