Mt. Democrat Trip Report 08/21/2015

Peak(s):	Mt. Democrat - 14,154 feet Mt. Cameron - 14,248 feet Mt. Lincoln - 14,293 feet Mt. Bross - 14,178 feet
Date Posted:	08/21/2015
Date Climbed:	08/20/2015
Author:	christine28

A Gusty Day Atop the Quartet!
My friend and I drove up to Kite Lake the evening before to camp (read: sleep in her car) and get an early morning's start on bagging 4 14ers the next day. The road up to the trailhead was rough, with some pretty big ditches from water runoff, but even her Honda Fit was able to make it without busting any parts. This was a Wednesday night and there were a fair amount of cars already parked in the lot. Overnight was incredibly windy, which was a sign for what was to come! It made us really glad to be sleeping in her car though, as being exposed in a tent above treeline all night long seemed quite undesirable. We left at 4 a.m. and seemed to be the second group on the trail. It was a little confusing to find the right trail in the dark, so if you find yourself in the same position: Go to the right of the trailhead sign, skip the short path that leads straight to the water, and go just a little further right to a trail where you can choose to either go left (Democrat-Lincoln) or right (Bross). The Bross sign warns about the trail being closed to public access, but as we know, everyone ignores that and hits the peak anyway. We had decided to do the route the traditional way, which is clockwise (Dem-Cam-Lin-Bross). One of the toughest things of this climb is that you're thrown into 12,000 foot climbing right away, and so your lungs and legs have little time to acclimate to such elevated hiking. I'm a decent hiker but definitely was tired for the first half of the haul up to Democrat. The trail was evident and it was sort of nice to not be able to see in the dark. The trail seems to just go up a rocky, steep slope. The whole path is mostly gray rock - not one of the prettiest 14ers I've ever been on, that's for sure! When you reach the Dem-Cameron saddle, take a left and wind your way up the steep trail. The wind really picked up here for us, as it was gusting over the ridge and literally took your breath away. (Is it typically like this? We did not know but others have not reported such windy conditions). There is one false summit but the real thing is close by. Someone(s) before us thoughtfully made a little protective cove where we took shelter for a minute, but didn't last long because it was so cold. We got to see the sunrise over the shoulder of Cameron, and then see it "again" multiple times as we descended and the sun ascended. We passed Cameron without hardly knowing it - Cameron is, as others have said, an incredibly flat top. On this windy day, we just wanted to get off of it as quickly as possible! We followed a trail northeast-ish off the top (thinking we were headed toward Cameron still) and found ourselves soon atop Lincoln, with some scrambling over rocks. There was a nice alcove created by friendly folks before us, again, and we took shelter in the sun to re-energize about 3.5 hours into our hike. The return path toward Bross skims along the left side of Cameron, skipping you the elevation gain. Everything that is on a ridge (which is most everything) was still very, very windy. The hike to Bross is easy, following an evident trail along the right side of Bross, except for a steep section where you veer off the main path ("illegally," Bross is private property) to get up to the top of Bross. Again, there was a great and this time large alcove for taking shelter in at the top. The path down was pretty easy to spot, and it winds southwest down the mountain toward Kite Lake below. It is steep and slippery at times, but nothing like Columbia, which I'd done five days prior. I would still do the route in the clockwise direction, even though the Bross descent can be a little rough, because it gets the toughest mountain (Democrat) out of the way first (in my opinion!). We got back to TH 6.5 hours after we started, finally warmed by the sun and glad to be out of the wind!

A Gusty Day Atop the Quartet!

My friend and I drove up to Kite Lake the evening before to camp (read: sleep in her car) and get an early morning's start on bagging 4 14ers the next day. The road up to the trailhead was rough, with some pretty big ditches from water runoff, but even her Honda Fit was able to make it without busting any parts. This was a Wednesday night and there were a fair amount of cars already parked in the lot. Overnight was incredibly windy, which was a sign for what was to come! It made us really glad to be sleeping in her car though, as being exposed in a tent above treeline all night long seemed quite undesirable.

We left at 4 a.m. and seemed to be the second group on the trail. It was a little confusing to find the right trail in the dark, so if you find yourself in the same position: Go to the right of the trailhead sign, skip the short path that leads straight to the water, and go just a little further right to a trail where you can choose to either go left (Democrat-Lincoln) or right (Bross). The Bross sign warns about the trail being closed to public access, but as we know, everyone ignores that and hits the peak anyway. We had decided to do the route the traditional way, which is clockwise (Dem-Cam-Lin-Bross).

One of the toughest things of this climb is that you're thrown into 12,000 foot climbing right away, and so your lungs and legs have little time to acclimate to such elevated hiking. I'm a decent hiker but definitely was tired for the first half of the haul up to Democrat. The trail was evident and it was sort of nice to not be able to see in the dark. The trail seems to just go up a rocky, steep slope. The whole path is mostly gray rock - not one of the prettiest 14ers I've ever been on, that's for sure!

When you reach the Dem-Cameron saddle, take a left and wind your way up the steep trail. The wind really picked up here for us, as it was gusting over the ridge and literally took your breath away. (Is it typically like this? We did not know but others have not reported such windy conditions). There is one false summit but the real thing is close by. Someone(s) before us thoughtfully made a little protective cove where we took shelter for a minute, but didn't last long because it was so cold. We got to see the sunrise over the shoulder of Cameron, and then see it "again" multiple times as we descended and the sun ascended. We passed Cameron without hardly knowing it - Cameron is, as others have said, an incredibly flat top. On this windy day, we just wanted to get off of it as quickly as possible!
We followed a trail northeast-ish off the top (thinking we were headed toward Cameron still) and found ourselves soon atop Lincoln, with some scrambling over rocks. There was a nice alcove created by friendly folks before us, again, and we took shelter in the sun to re-energize about 3.5 hours into our hike.

The return path toward Bross skims along the left side of Cameron, skipping you the elevation gain. Everything that is on a ridge (which is most everything) was still very, very windy. The hike to Bross is easy, following an evident trail along the right side of Bross, except for a steep section where you veer off the main path ("illegally," Bross is private property) to get up to the top of Bross. Again, there was a great and this time large alcove for taking shelter in at the top. The path down was pretty easy to spot, and it winds southwest down the mountain toward Kite Lake below. It is steep and slippery at times, but nothing like Columbia, which I'd done five days prior. I would still do the route in the clockwise direction, even though the Bross descent can be a little rough, because it gets the toughest mountain (Democrat) out of the way first (in my opinion!). We got back to TH 6.5 hours after we started, finally warmed by the sun and glad to be out of the wind!

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