conditions for pikes or quandary in april

I've been considering climbing one of these in April but all depends on what conditions and everything i would come across.
I dont have a ton of snow experience and would plan to take the Barr trail or the standard route for Quandary i was considering doing this solo but am being advised against it just wondering what other climbers thoughts are on this idea.

I've never been on Pikes in winter. Quandary can be safe with careful route finding and stable conditions. Bierstadt is a really good safe winter 14er, but it is harder now that Guanella doesn't go all the way up.

If you're not avy savvy, its a good idea to stick to routes that are nothing but wind blown ridgeline. Grizzly/Cupid or Sniktau from Loveland Pass are really good intro to CO winter mountaineering.

There will definitely be snow on Pikes in April, most likely a lot of snow as well as new snow storms. Another option for you is to do Pikes from the Crags Campground in Divide, CO. You start around 10,000 ft, the beginning is steep (however it is still a fairly easy hike), but from then on it gets quite a bit flatter. It is only 12.5 miles round trip so if weather conditions don't appear in your favor you can bail pretty easy. I am pretty sure people hike this (especially the beginning of the trail) year round so unless there has been fresh snow recently it shouldn't be too bad of a post holing adventure. It is an easy hike, but its never a bad idea to have someone else with you as I am sure you already know.

Both Pikes and Quandry are fairly easy winter 14ers. If on Quandry you mean the East Ridge by standard route then that would be a good choice. Barr trail is very straighforward but it's long. There are opportunities to drop weight because of the hut on the Barr trail. They've got food and a place to stay (does cost more money, no reservations). The summit house is a nice place to wait out storms but if weather's bad it may not be open anyways. I've not done the Crag's Camp trail but it is half the roundtrip mileage of the Barr trail

If your lack of snow experience means lack of winter experience then I would suggest something that you don't need to stay the night out. Depending on where you're coming from then you have acclimitization issues as well.

Pikes Peak was my first fourteener and I decided to do it solo, in winter (my Christmas gift to myself). You can read about it here: gregsclimbingblog.blogspot.…

I've done plenty of solo mountaineering and all I can say is it's more fun with another person, especially when you're just getting started. It also means you can carry more safety equipment and still not carry monster loads.