Route: Cristo Couloir

Team: Ted, Matt Hannon

You might say it all started with Quandary Peak. While Mount Sopris was the first Colorado summit that I skied back in 1997, it was Quandary Peak, two years later, that really got me inspired.

Living in Aspen with my cousin Matt Hannon, I was about fifteen summits into my summer 14er tick list. After hearing from a friend about Quandary Peak I looked into what was involved. Matt borrowed a pair of Alpine Trekkers, and I cleaned off my junky AT rig, and we headed to Summit County.

Wow, that was fun.

It wasn’t fast, nor was it easy. Our skins were really narrow compared to the wall-to-wall coverage used today, and our alpine boots were heavy, but to arrive at the summit and then click in and ski back down to the car, well, that was cool. Since we were four years old, we skied together all over the East Coast, but this was a different experience. The long couloir that seemed to get better and better the further we skied, this wasn’t Windham Mountain back in the Catskills.

Thanks for coming along, Matt!