It was November of 2025 when my friend, Austin, and I finally had enough of the North Georgia mountains and started craving another trip across the country. I had two days of southeast skiing under my belt from 6 years prior, had never been to Colorado, and had never been more than 8,000ft high. Therefore, we decided it was the perfect destination for our next expedition. We had planned to ski half the week, and hope for a weather window for a 14er.

We booked our flights for Dec. 15th, saved all the money we could, and set off. We knew we were risking snow quality/quantity by going early season, but had no other option due to our schedule. We spent the first 3 days in Leadville, skiing at a small beginner-friendly resort named Ski Cooper. The snow conditions were less than stellar and felt oddly reminiscent of skiing at Cataloochee in North Carolina, but it was still a beautiful day learning a new activity.

While Austin picked up skiing quite naturally, I spent the majority of the week with bruised hips and an even more bruised ego from the excessive amount of time I spent slamming into ice.

After 2 days at Cooper, we scooted over to Aspen to stay with a friend who worked for Aspen Ski Co. and was hooking us up with a free floor to sleep on and lift tickets. Finally, a real mountain to test ourselves on. We decided warm-up runs or practice laps were for posers, and went straight to the top of the mountain. Especially since only a handful of runs on the mountain were open, we thought it would give us the most bang for our buck.

But finally, 3 days of destroying our legs later, it was time for our main objective. We spotted a weather window for Quandary Peak for next Sunday. We killed time by driving around the state until Saturday night, when we parked our rented 4Runner in a nearby parking lot and settled in for a sleepless night before an early wakeup.

We were feeling decently fit, at least relative to my time in Washington a couple of years earlier, and thought we could keep a pretty steady pace, so we opted for a 6am start. We made our way quickly through the easy road section to start, and before we knew it, we were making our way through the woods.

We had spent the week acclimatizing and slept the last couple of nights at or near 10k feet, so we were aiming to gain at least 1,000ft/vert per hour. At the beginning, the trail is very easy, only moving at a slight incline for the first hour. Just before 7am, we were able to catch sunrise right before moving above the treeline.

There had been very little snowfall before our ascent, so we were able to follow an obvious bootpack the entire way. Because of this fact, there was also very little avalanche danger, so our main goal was to just move as quickly as possible. There was another group that had started around 30 minutes before us, and it was here that we could start to hear them. Being two young men, the idea that we could pass a group of people who started earlier than us lit enough of a spark that I picked up the pace a bit.

We gained the ridgeline around 8:30am, right as the sun was fully coming up. While the temperature began to rise immediately, the wind also began to howl. It was forecasted to have gusts pushing 35mph-40mph, but having never experienced wind like that, it was still a shock to the system whenever a large gust would fly through.

This is where we met up with the group that started before us. We noticed one of them was wearing socks on his hands, and after inquiring as to why, he remembered an extra pair of socks but not a single pair of gloves. Gotta do whatcha gotta do, I guess.

We bid our goodbyes to our new friends after chatting for a few minutes and continued storming up the peak. This is where I realized my body was more acclimated than Austin’s, as he was taking more frequent breaks. We continued trudging along until we were around 500-600ft of gain below the summit. This is where Austin was ready for another break, as he was having slight breathing issues, but I was feeling fit, so we decided I was going to continue going, and we would meet up at the summit. This was an entirely selfish decision, because I had a side goal of summiting in less than four hours, and I was cutting it close to that time goal.

The final trudge to the top was uneventful, but I was feeling elated on account of how strong I still felt. Finally, at just past 10am, I hit the true summit.

I checked my watch, and my final ascent time was 4 hours and 1 minute. Oh well, next time. After around 20 minutes, Austin caught up, and we enjoyed our summit burrito and tried to stay away from the insanely strong wind.

After abusing the surprisingly good cell service atop the mountain to call our friends and brag about where we were, we started the long walk down. Neither of us was particularly stoked on taking our time, so we half-walked, half-jogged until we were back in tree cover. We made it back down to our car in about 2 hours, just in time for some lunch in town.

While easy, successful days outside do not make the most interesting trip reports, they are the reasons we keep going back to the mountains. Every now and then, we deserve some good type 1 fun, and that’s exactly what this was. It showed that if you show up with the right gear and the proper amount of fitness, tasks that seemed impossible can be accomplished before lunch. We have carried this lesson with us, especially now that we are training for bigger and more technical objectives.