Cristo Couloir, Quandary Peak 14,265ft - March 17, 2007

Riders: Scott & Oliver

The Colorado folks have been going after the 14ers the last week or so.
Inspired by that Scott suggested to try the Cristo Couloir. Usually I would not go after those lines this early in the season. However it was now a little different due to the warm weather we had recently that helped to stabilize the south facing slopes. (at least went you start early)

After studying the Snotel sites we saw that we had quite some good freezes in that area overnight. So we decided to give it a try. There is always the possibility to drop the East face in case we do not like what we see in the couloir.

We started at 7AM at the trailhead.

Picture 1: The objective (Click to enlarge)


Picture 2: The lower bowl of the east face


Picture 3: Greys and Torreys loom in the background


Picture 4: The upper bowl of the east face


Picture 5: Switch over to hiking mode


Picture 6: The upper ridges were quite windy and made for a relatively slow going.
Finally made it! (after about 4 hours)


Picture 7: Man…. Wasn’t that supposed to be a nice spring outing??
It was pretty cold and windy at the top.


Picture 8: First look down the couli


Picture 9: What the heck is up with that road block?


Picture 10: Dropping in


Picture 11: First Turns


Picture 12: Watch the road block

Picture 13: Lower Part






Picture 16: Scott pointing the Bros straight down






Picture 19: Myself






Picture 22: I guess he enjoyed that run


Picture 23: Last turns


Picture 24: Looking West at the bottom


Picture 25: Looking up


Picture 26: Our babies treated us well today


Picture 27: The Point (not where we are going, but rather where we are coming from)


Thanks Scott to bring up the idea.
It was a great outing!