- Hike on 60 days this calendar year
- Hike/walk/run/treadmill 2021 miles
- Make it to 100 14ers (I’m currently at 94)
- Hike/walk/run/treadmill elevation gain of 1 million feet
- Summit a combined total of 10 winter 13/14ers
- Finish the Bicentennials
- Summit 3 new state highpoints outside of Colorado
- Summit 3 new El Paso County Highpoints
- Hike another section of the Colorado Trail
- Keep my average above 10+ miles and 4000’+ of elevation gain per hike
Quandary Peak – 14,265
RT Length: 7.22 miles
Elevation Gain: 3444’
Just to get 2021 off to a good start, I set my alarm for early and made a reservation to hike the Manitou Springs Incline on New Years Day. Unfortunately, my alarm didn’t go off and I ended up missing my start time. I was super bummed, but I didn’t let it get me down: I still had enough time to get a hike in. I figured I’d just do Quandary Peak instead. This is the 4th time I’ve hiked Quandary, and I’ve written several trip reports on the peak, so I’ll just post some pictures with highlights:
The road and trail was well packed down
This time I decided not to stop at all, and guess what? I had my fastest summit of Quandary Peak! There were tons of dogs on the trail today, and I even saw a group of skiers with guides. Here’s the summit
It was very, very cold today. It didn’t get above 18 degrees (that’s what the temperature was when I got back to my truck). There was a slight layer of frost on everything
Looking west
Heading back down I came across some BASE jumpers who were intending to jump from the summit. I didn’t think it was windy enough today. In fact, it was a perfect, bluebird day to go hiking!
I saw Mountain Goats on the way down, but they were kind of far away
Here’s a topo map of the route. I made it back to my truck at 11:45am, making this a 4 hour hike: 7.22 miles with 3444’ of elevation gain
The Quandary Peak Summit Sticker can be found here
Wild Wanderer 