Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 6/23/2024, By: aldsw Info: We did the full DeCaLiBron standard route. There were a few minor snow crossings on Democrat and one between Lincoln and Bross but the rest of the route was summer conditions. No need for spikes. The decent down Bross is still as chossy as ever. |
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Route: "S Gully" Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: Swerner Info: Road is open to the trailhead, had no problem getting there in a Corolla with some careful driving. Took the "S Gully" up Bross, which was actually a very pleasant snow climb (maybe a good one if someone's looking for an intro to snow climbing??). "S Gully" is boring so I propose "Salamander Couloir" because it looks like a salamander. Snow was hard all the way up, starting at 6:30ish and summiting Bross around 8. Gully gets minimal sun so it may stick around a while. Down Bross to Cameron and Lincoln, almost no snow crossings, maybe 1-2 but didn't need spikes. Cameron to Democrat saw a bit more snow to the saddle making you go off-trail a bit. Up Democrat from the saddle you got options of a relatively easy snow climb or an annoying dry talus scramble (trail is covered so you just gotta go up). Coming down you can find some nice glissades, I cut most of the descent to the saddle with one (slushy snow, though I imagine if it was firmer it would be way too fast). After the saddle mixed snow/trail, with a nice glissade opportunity to cut a few hundred feet. I'd say you'd be fine without spikes today on standard routes, and trail runners probably fine if you don't mind getting wet. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 6/15/2024, By: BiggasPanda Info: Dolly Varden gully goes for 2000 ft of great riding still. |
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Route: "S Gully" Posted On: 5/26/2024, By: Skimo95 Info: S Gully skied fine yesterday. Skinned up a bit and then started boot packing the ridge. Picked up the standard trail to legal summit and rode back to the car basically. This route was dog friendly if you have taken them on plenty of ski tours before and you time the snow well. Did not need any traction devices at this time. Kite lake looks to be filled in on all aspects. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 12/22/2023, By: Willhf1011 Info: Copied from Democrat: Road closed at lower gate, ~1mi from Kite Lake. Road is pretty clean though, easy hiking. Kite Lake up to Democrat has the most snow of the route, snowshoes would be nice but not necessary. Once up to the saddle the standard routes are pretty good, just snowy. A little bit of snow loaded above the standard route up Democrat but its thin, well consolidated, and SE facing. Saddle between Cameron and Lincoln is bone dry and Bross is also quite dry. Some nice cornices forming in the chutes on Lincolns south face. Spikes were helpful on Democrat thru Lincoln, not really needed for Bross, though there are some steep snowy parts of that descent. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 11/14/2023, By: Da Legit Master Info: The road leading to the Kite Lake Trailhead is closed at a locked gate 1.1miles back from the trailhead at around 11,500'. There is enough room to park three vehicles here. There is hardly any snow on the road, but starting at the trailhead there is snow on most of the decalibron loop. There was not a lot of ice, but I would still bring poles and spikes. Crampons are probably a little overkill right now. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 10/7/2023, By: jfm3 Info: There is some drifted & packed snow on the road/trail leading up the north side below the summit. It can easily be avoided. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 10/2/2023, By: poseidon Info: Super windy at the Bross summit (I believe gusts were forecast to be around 40 mph), but was fine on the rest of the Decalibron peaks. It is a very open peak that is almost the size of a football field. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 9/23/2023, By: backcountrybrodes Info: Democrat was nice and then 70+ mph winds at 14k on Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross. OOF. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 2/3/2023, By: madmattd Info: The snow chutes on the N side of Cameron are filled in and fairly wind-packed. Snow felt stable (not deep either), and I put on my mountaineering snowshoes to cross as they are far superior in traction to microspikes - worked fine. Otherwise, there were opportunities to detour a little higher and around the worst area. The road up to and through the "Bross Bypass" had a few inches of snow but also bare rock, I used no traction/flotation aids and was fine - microspikes would be a good option B. I did use spikes for almost the entire descent, there were short stretches of rock but generally there was a ribbon of snow down the summer trail until I lost it about 300' above the willows near Kite Lake. From there I put snowshoes back on as I was punching through a lot, and marched back to the car 2 miles below the summer TH. The descent of Bross was way nicer with a little snow gluing all the crappy gravel together, though still steep and not terribly pleasant - still, better than in summer by a lot! Bross's slopes are pretty bare other than the ribbon of snow on the trail itself. S-gully was pretty thin and narrow up high, I can post a pic later this weekend if anyone wants to see. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 6/25/2022, By: hsfedina Info: In great condition. Went up Bross doing Decalibron. All peaks great but Democrat had some snow to go thru, but no postholing at 2 pm. Saw a goat and her baby. |
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Route: "Dolly Varden Gully" Posted On: 6/6/2022, By: Marcos Info: The gully still has good coverage, even if the snow doesn't reach all the way to the parking area any more. Good spot for some late-season low angle turns. ACCESS NOTE: About half a mile from the parking area, watch out for hand-dug trench crossing the road. It's totally out of character with the rest of the road up to that point, and you will need an alignment or possibly a new driveshaft if you hit it going faster than about 3 mph. |
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Route: "S Gully" Posted On: 6/1/2022, By: flyzapper Info: We used the S Gully to descend Bross after completing the loop. We inserted into the gully at 14,000 feet on Bross, as the standard scree trail crosses. It was full of snow as of 5/31 with all of the recent snowfall, and in good condition. With the west facing slope, the snow softens in the afternoon and can make glissades a bit slow if done too late in the day. Overall a very fun way to descend. |
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Route: "Dolly Varden Gully" Posted On: 5/26/2022, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: Good news for any other skiers/boarders looking to take advantage of this past week's storms: Snow is continuous from summit to Windy Ridge Road! Bad news: the road, as of today, had just enough snow on it that I wussed out a mile from the turn off Kite Lake Road and parked at a pull-off, but not so much snow that I wanted to skin the rest of the way (see TH update for pics); I walked the rest of the distance to the start of the gully with my skis on my pack. Happily, I was able to skin up and then ski down the entirety of the gully. Between treeline and where the gully opens up, the snow is wind-crusted to the point where I'd have wanted microspikes if I'd been booting it up. The snow is, unsurprisingly, a bit thin on the summit plateau; I tried to stick to my skin tracks going back across as much as possible so that I'd be able to see where the rocks were most eager to take a swipe at my skis. As the wind and sun keep working their, uh, magic, keeping skins on until wherever you drop down might not be such a bad idea. Snow had gotten a tad slushy by the time I dropped in, but perhaps thanks to the wind, it didn't reach full mashed-potato status until I hit the willows. I did have some good turns between the ridge and re-entering the gully, though as on the summit, being mindful of shallowly-covered rocks is prudent. It appeared that I was the first (and, so far, only) skier to go up this route since the last round of snow. Anybody interested in taking advantage of my skin track might find themselves wondering why I took such a serpentine path instead of a more direct route to the summit - to that I say that 1. I was going for the path of least resistance, 2. the path of least resistance also happened to be where the most favorable ratio of snow to rocks was, and 3. anyone else is, of course, welcome to put in their own track! ;) |
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Route: "Dolly Varden Gully" Posted On: 5/15/2022, By: habaceeba Info: The road is in good shape. No snow until just before the mine. There is a drift that can be bypassed on the right. I put a few more details in a TH conditions report. The walk to the gully from the mine is about 150 to 200 yards. Started at 7:40am with solid skinnable snow. It was softening up before I got to the top of it. I hit South Bross, Cameron, and Mt. Bross. Got back down to my ski gear at the top of the gully around 12:30. Aside from the suncups, the snow was in good skiing condition until the very bottom. The snow is holding on for now, but it is dirty. I didn't probe for depth, but I would bet it will melt out quickly. Go get it now if you want it. It was a great day out. |
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Route: "Dolly Varden Gully" Posted On: 5/10/2022, By: Cthulhu 2008 Info: Made it to the mine in 4Runner w/ KO2s. Some drifts and continuous patches of snow. Only 2 places of concern. Not too bad on the way up as it was mostly frozen. Did get stuck once on the way down. It should be open real soon though. Continuous snow from within site of the truck to 13,600'. Booted the summit from there. Gully is skiing well. |
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Route: "Dolly Varden Gully" Posted On: 5/3/2022, By: climbnowworklater Info: Beautiful day! R/T ~8 miles. Took 4 hours at a leisurely pace. Did more walking than skiing but totally worth it. The gully skied nice. The road in had multiple drifts and long sections of dirt. In a week or so the road should be melted out to the mine I'd think. Coverage could be good for a few weeks or more. |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 3/21/2022, By: Eli Watson Info: Summitted "DeCaLiBro" from winter parking at private property below Kite Lake TH. Parked approx 1.8 mi shy of Kite Lake TH. Some cars were parked right at the sign at the edge of private property. I chose to park a few hundred yards down the hill where there's an obvious pull off area off the road. I wore snowshoes shortly after the gate and was glad to have them on until approx 12,800'. I bobbed and weaved through the Kite Lake bowl and upper Democrat slopes to avoid avy terrain or wind drifts. I'm probably around 200 lbs with gear and pack, and the strong wind gusts out of the NW were not fun. There's a lot wind drifts that make for really variable snow conditions from bulletproof wind hammer to sugar that made for a more frustrating day than expected. Wore spikes from the summit of Democrat all the way back to the car. The Bross "S Gully" is tempting to want to take down, but it doesn't look ready and I wasn't prepared to have to climb out of it if the snow was too sketchy. I honestly think descending Bross with snow is preferable to dry. Saw 7ish other hikers out today. A group of them summited Democrat without snowshoes, but I was glad to have mine on. I could have put them on the road walk out and avoid sinking down a bit, but it would have been more effort than it was worth to switch again. 10.95 mi, 4260', 6:50 Car-to-Car Splits: 5:55 AM Parking 6:25 AM Turn off from Kite Lake TH Rd (0:30) 8:48 AM Democrat Summit (2:23) 10:15 AM Cameron Summit (1:27) 10:40 AM Lincoln Summit (0:25) 11:20 PM Bross Summit (0:40) 12:45 PM Parking (1:25) |
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Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross Posted On: 10/4/2021, By: Kschroeder10210 Info: Went counterclockwise. About 6” of snow on the final ascent of Bross, windy but manageable. If you descend, I'd recommend traction. It was fine on the ascent without. Democrat, Lincoln, Cameron had icy traverses but nothing too sketchy. All passable without traction. I'd want micro spikes after the next snowstorm. |
