Our Climb to Summit Mt. Quandary
Several months ago Luke and I decided that we’d go to Colorado for his birthday. Since I’d already hiked one 14er without him, I wanted him to experience the accomplishment with me so we decided to tackle a relatively easy hike with Mt. Quandary.
The thing is, the rating system for trails in Colorado are some what subjective. Clearly what is easy for an avid hiker and person who lives at a high altitude may or may not be “easy” for a flat lander that lives just above sea level. Mt. Quandary is considered a class 1 hike (the easiest of all 14er hikes) from trail head to summit. Class 1 means you’ll always be on your feet, there will be no scrambling (using your hands to steady yourself like a child climbing a slide) or rock climbing. You’ll basically be walking up hill for a long time.
The more we talked about it, we realized we didn’t want to leave the kids at home for this vacation. It is our oldest daughter’s last summer before starting college so this would be an all out family vacation. But, could we still do the climb? Certainly. We could at least try. So, before heading out to Colorado I bought every one a water bladder for her backpack (Luke and I already had one) and a head lamp. I figured anything else we needed we could figure out along the way. Our oldest needed some hiking shoes so we opted for a pair of trail runners. She’s about to live atop a mountain in Georgia so I’m sure she’ll put them to good use with some day hikes.
I obsessively (shocker to anyone who knows me well) checked the weather forecast as soon as our planned day fit in the 10 day forecast. It wasn’t looking good. Our first few days in Breckenridge would be sunny, with little chance of afternoon shower. The rest of the week would be plagued, or blessed however you want to look at it, with the regular early afternoon shower with severe weather more likely Wednesday and Thursday. Our week was becoming planned out and Wednesday was looking like the best day on our schedule to hike. It would give the girls time between busy days to rest up. We’d be able to go to bed early on Tuesday, schedule wise it was the best option. However, weather wise it wasn’t looking good.

Above is a screen shot I took of the forecast for that day. Typically the showers and thunderstorms don’t start until later in the day. I wasn’t liking the looks of 40% chance of rain and scattered thunderstorms at 10am. There’s a really good reason for it other than it would kind of stink to get wet. Lightning is a pretty big risk. People die from lightning strikes above tree line and it’s almost impossible to avoid. You’re the tallest thing up there, basically a human lighting rod. So, it is very important to be below tree line if any storm clouds are present. I can handle the thought of bolting from the summit down the mile or so of insane rocky terrain to the safety of the trees by myself, but just thinking about my kids being up there made me very concerned. The only way to avoid any risk was to start early, and pray. Before we crossed that trail head sign we took just a minute to pray. Luke prayed for a good time and safety. I prayed “God, just hold the weather back. Only you can do it. We need that today.”

So, we left our condo at 4:30am and had our feet on the trail at 5:00am. Exactly as planned. I love it when plans work out I feel so much more relaxed. We had 5 hours to summit and get back below tree line. Surely we could do that, right?
The sun started to rise just before 6:00 and it was breath taking. I’ve seen the sunrise in the mountains like this before, but it never ceases to amaze me.

I had packed some breakfast burritos. The kids all ate theirs in the car on the way to the trail head. It was a short 21 minute drive from our condo. Luke and I saved ours to refuel along the trail. After a quick stop around 6:15, we continued on.

The people in the right of this picture are me, followed by Gloria, followed by Audrey. Can you even believe that is us? Great shot Luke!
I was keeping a close eye on the time and on the sky. It was 7:30am, we’d cleared the tree line. I looked at the peak in the distance and figured we’d make the summit around 8:30am. We could turn around and make the decent by 10am. I even joked with Luke that we’d make it to town for brunch. That’s about the time I shouldn’t have said that.

This shot shows us almost out of the trees, the peak in the distance. We can make it in an hour for sure, we’d been making good time up until this point.
Audrey lost all stamina. She kept putting one foot in front of the other. She was walking more and more slowly and I started to fear her not being able to make it the whole way. There is a decent climb, then a ridge walk, followed by another decent climb. We probably gained a good 1000 vertical feet in the last half mile. I could be wrong, don’t quote me on that. It’s sure what my legs and feet were telling me.

This shot shows a few things. We’re at the end of the ridge walk for the last vertical challenge. Zoom in to find a pink jacket…that’s Gloria. Madelyn and Emma are there too, just not wearing colors as easy to find. Also, some clouds are forming but it’s not looking bad at all.
Right at the beginning of the ridge walk, sweet little Audrey was in all out tears. Not the kind of tears a kid cries when they want something that you’re not giving them. But the kind of tears you cry when you know you can’t go forward and you can’t go back. They were the tears of defeat of exhaustion and frustration. We had sung every song, played every game and given every word of encouragement we had. I’m all tough love and Luke is the master of distraction. I was saying “You can cry but you have to keep walking.” He’s all “99 bottles of milk on the wall 99 bottles of milk…” “So Audrey what are your favorite stuffed animals’ names?” I fell in love with him a little more.
Just when I thought she couldn’t take another step this random couple walks up as if to pass us. There are ton of people on the mountain by the way. We easily saw 50–75 other hikers all day. We move over to the side as we walk at a snails pace offering to let them pass. Instead they ask Audrey if she’d like to play a game. They played that one “I’m going on a trip and I’m packing…” game where you have to list everything every one said before you and it all goes in alphabetical order. They asked her questions about herself like “What grade will you be in next school year?” and “Have you met your teacher.” She thought the last one was pretty funny given she lives with her teacher. She was happy to chat. They talked her all the way up that last climb…which took so long. I kept telling them it was ok if they went on ahead and that I appreciated all they had done. They wouldn’t have it. Emily carried Audrey’s pole occasionally and offered to carry her pack. Justin told her that he’d help her throw snow balls at her sisters when we reached the summit. He carried through on that promise but other hikers weren’t so pleased with that decision. They were nothing less than trail angels. The sweetest part of the story, it was their first date.

We made it to the top! Madelyn, Emma and Gloria were already there. They waited for us! They had been up there waiting for us for about 30 minutes. Emma is always cold, just in regular life, she’s freezing, so we weren’t terribly surprised to find her wrapped up in an emergency blanket. Every one had a special treat in their snack bag. I had gotten them all their favorite candy to have in celebration of their accomplishment. The three oldest girls all had enough of the cold temperature and wind and were ready to head down. We took a few pictures and they began their decent. We enjoyed our treats and the view for a little while longer. Audrey and I build a cairn.








Then, Luke Audrey and I began our decent. We accomplished what Audrey believed to be impossible. We made it all the way up. The decent is a little harder on the body and some of the “stairs” are actually up to Miss Audrey’s hips, so she required a lot of help. We weren’t with the other three girls but can I just say I should have bought everyone trail runners…those not wearing actual trail shoes took a few falls.

This is a good shot of the aforementioned ridge walk. And the next is a good perspective of the last climb to the summit though it was taken on our way down. You can also see some of the “stairs” that mark the path. These were pretty manageable for her and others were higher.


I think now is a good time to talk about the sky. We summited around 9:00am and began our decent around 9:30am. Give or take, I’m actually not sure. There was a 40% chance of thunderstorm at 10am. Look at that sky, it’s about 10am in this picture!
Another highlight of this adventure were the goats. Wild mountain goats live in this area and this trail is famous for them. A baby goat came almost close enough for Audrey to touch and I just had to take a selfie with a goat. (Look at that trail in the background.)


We were back below tree line at 11:30. At which point Audrey had to go “off trail” if you know what I mean. She had a new found energy after that. We took another snack break for her and got back to the girls at 12:50. We started hearing thunder around noon and by the time we got back to our condo at 1:30, it was raining. We could see Mt. Quandary from our Condo and I was hoping those we saw going up on our decent had made it to safety in plenty of time. This is Luke and Audrey flying down into the trees and all of us back together at the end of a long day.


Our verse for this climb was Romans 5:3
We rejoice in our suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
I hope my kids learn that sometimes really hard things are worth it. I hope they learn that sometimes there is nothing to do but keep moving forward. I hope they learn that they have it with in themselves to overcome any obstacle. I hope they learn that before you begin any journey you should bow before the master of the universe and ask him to hold back the storms.

