I camped below Quandary’s SE face for two nights in mid May 2023. I climbed the SE face the first day I believe and then climbed the broad couloir on Wheeler’s NE face leading to the E ridge the next morning in considerably cloudy but sufficiently magical conditions. The day I climbed Quandary, the cloud base was around 14k, so I ended up summiting in a total whiteout, and could barely differentiate the terrain from the air. Pretty cool. First time on Quandary, SE face is a great moderate climb with lots of options. I glissaded Cristo couloir on descent, fun times! Snow was generally the sugary post-holey crap those familiar with CO in the spring will be used to.
The approach to the Blue Lakes THBelow Quandary’s SE face, the only somewhat dry spot amidst the wet snow.Fletcher in the distance. SE face from camp spotThe best photo I have of my route. I took the diagonal gully up and to the left, which left me on 35-45 degree slopes. I then climbed up and to the right, crossing 2ish rock ribs and reaching the ridge crest near the summit just left of the rightmost prominent pyramid partially in the clouds on the skyline.Looking up once exiting the ‘diagonal ditch’. From here went up and right over my first rib.Looking down coming over the second rib via a nice sneaky little couloir. Decent snow. Campsite visible in middle left background. Looking towards North Star and South Park.Part of the upper face. A little nice tower, eh!? I stayed to its left and to that of the subsequent buttress, reaching the ridge crest at the top of the gully in the upper middle-left. 45-50 degrees tops. On the summit. All to myself. Bro, it was like, difficult to tell if I was in like a dream or reality dude. Totally radical. (only single axe necessary)
