This is the way to do Quandary, if you are comfortable with class 3 scrambling. Way less people, beautiful basin, and class 3 scramble! The only downside is the barrage of people on the summit and coming down the south face. Can’t rush coming down ball bearings or loose talus.
Anna, http://www.instagram.com/_morj_, and I started from the dam around 6am. The trail was easy to follow and wasn’t too muddy or wet. We got to the basin and made the decision to stay off the snow and go off route and head for the ridge. It had a few cairns to follow. Class 3 mixed with some class 2 loose rock. I wish I would have taken a pic. A couple precautions going this way. Its loose and hence prone to erosion. Also, we were the only ones going this way but if there were more people you would have to be mindful of rockfall.
Getting stoked! 
A little alpenglow on the peaks west of Quandary 
Got to the ridge 
Taking in the views 
Water bottle down! I caught it. LNT! 
Some more class 3. 
Anna checking for loose rock before she uses it. 
Climbing up the last wall. 
Summitish 
What we have to head down to get to the car. I can see it though. 
Obligatory goat pic on Quandary. We were getting worried we wouldn’t see any.
Once we got on the ridge it was mostly class 2 with an easy trail to follow until we got to about 14,000. Where the fun began. We finally got to do some more class 3 scrambling and even found some class 4. This is also where the route finding difficulties start. Not terrible, but if you don’t have any experience it could definitely get a little dicey if you continue too far the wrong way. Hence all the warnings on the http://14ers.com website.
After that we reached the summit and the gazillion people. It was a Saturday after all. So what do two introverts do? We calmly walk past all the people and started heading down before we took a break. Luckily we both had been on the summit before and didn’t need to take the obligatory summit pic. We did get a summitish pic, however.
We then headed down the west ridge of the Cristo Couloir It took us a little over 3 hours to reach the summit and then 2 hours of suck to get back down to the car. I think I would still go down the south face instead of the standard route and walking the road back to car. We then went to Ollie’s Pub in Frisco. One of my favorites. Good food menu and a good beer list. What more could you want?
