Mt. Bross

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 1/25/2016, By: XterraRob
Info: This is for Bross/Cameron/Lincoln. Standard route up Bross from Kite Lake is dry. From Bross to Cameron, it‘s relatively dry with some left over snow (all super hardpacked/windscoured) From Cameron to Lincoln, small bit of snow on the tops of the ridges, nothing difficult. From Cameron back down to Kite Lake, mostly hard pack/wind scoured. No big avalanche threat. 

Route: East Slopes from Moose Creek
Posted On: 1/2/2016, By: Dad Mike
Info: Quartzville Road TH: The road is plowed, but snow-packed from Alma to intersection with Zinc Road. Four wheel drive definitely recommended. I lost control of my jeep on the way down the road...luckily I ended up in someone‘s driveway, not a ditch. Climbed Bross‘ East Ridge, traversed over to South Bross, skied down the Bross‘ East Face. There is a good ski track in the trees and the ridge is a mix of rocks and snow. I avoided the upper bowl under the snow because the snow was pretty sh*tty and the initial slope is steep. I hiked down a short section of the SE Ridge before traversing over to the face. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 11/23/2015, By: awpalmer27
Info: Climbed Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross on a sunny but blustery Sunday. There are two foot deep snow drifts on the road to Kite Lake. Stock 4wd vehicles won‘t be able to make it to the lake. We were in a 4wd small SUV and made it only 2.5 miles before we had to park. This added considerable mileage to our trip. We ended up hiking 14.25 miles (3.5 miles on the road to Kite Lake, 7.25 miles of the Combo route, and 3.5 miles on the road from Kite Lake back to the car). We didn‘t see a single soul the whole day. Get out there and you‘ll have the mountains to yourself. To help you plan your day... We started hiking at 8:00 am, reached Kite Lake at 9:30 am, summited Democrat at noon, summited Cameron at 2:00 pm, summited Lincoln at 2:30 pm, summited Bross at 3:30 pm, got back to Kite Lake at 4:50 pm, and got back to our car at 5:50 pm. Recommended gear: micro-spikes, ice axe (if you want to glissade down Bross). Optional gear: snowshoes (we had them but only used them a couple times). Don‘t bother bringing: crampons or avalanche safety gear. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 9/4/2015, By: madadraw1
Info: Camped at Kite Lake, started at 4AM to make sunrise on Mt Democrat. No snow on trail, as to be expected. Light frost made rocks/trail a little slick and just slightly slowed us coming down Democrat but non-issue thereafter. Temps in 30s on our start, but felt colder coming up / down Cameron with the wind. Up to 50 degrees by final summit of Bross. Good number of other hikers out today, great start to Labor Day weekend! Note, my RAV 4 barely got past some of big ruts in road on way to trailhead. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 8/2/2015, By: dist347
Info: Excellent hiking conditions. No extra gear necessary for ascent or traverse from Cameron. However, descent to Kite Lake can be a little sketchy. Make sure you‘re prepared for steep sections of scree if you choose to head down Bross on the west. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 7/10/2015, By: tjerasdave
Info: Recent dusting of snow as well and slick in spots but no traction needed. You do have to deal with a snow field from Cameron but snow was soft enough to cross but also no postholing in the morning. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 7/4/2015, By: mbnat
Info: Hiked all 4 peaks Friday morning. Conditions overall very good, I did all 4 in hiking boots and no other gear with no problems. Democrat still has a bit of snow on it, but if you go early before the sun hits it, its firm and easy. The largest snowfields you can avoid too by staying on the rock. Only a few spots you can‘t avoid near the top, but again go early. The other 3 are 99% clear. Wildflowers starting to pop up too! 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 6/21/2015, By: Arrowpig
Info: Bross was fine, some snow, but passable in boots. Read the captions to the two photos for suggestion to take the S Gulley down, not the scree to the south-west of the summit. 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 6/19/2015, By: Tim A
Info: Ascended Bross via the little-publicized snow route from Kite Lake, which is so much better than doing the standard route. Snow coverage is good for the entire gully, starting low in the basin and working to within probably 100 vertical feet of the summit. Started at 530am, base of gully at 615, summit at 8am. Bottom half of gully was mellow enough with a bootpack that I barebooted it. Upper half I switched to crampons and axe, as it steepens and was bulletproof snow that early. Sun didn't hit it until around 830, after I'd ascended the entire gully. Attempted traverse to Cameron and Lincoln but lots of snow still on the ridgeline and it was very punchy even by 830am, with no way around it. Since I'd cached my snowshoes halfway up the gully, I turned around. Take snowshoes up the peaks if you plan on traversing any of them. On the descent, snow softened up enough for a smooth glissade, and I ran into a guy skinning up at that time as well (~930am), when the snow was soft enough to not need traction. Talked to him after he skied down, said it was great conditions. 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 6/8/2015, By: r_grizz
Info: Climbed and skied Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross. Kite Lake Road is impassable at Sweet Home Mine, about 1.5 miles above Paris Mill. The hardest part of the day was breaking trail for the standard traverse route from Lincoln, under the Cameron summit, to the saddle with Bross. The Mt. Bross "S" gully was in so fat with nearly perfect corn snow conditions for my afternoon descent. It was pretty warm, and everything's melting quickly. I pity the fool who's up there without flotation any later than 10:00 AM. Lots of very large wet slides on the southeast face of Democrat (picture #6). One other thing to note is that the creek draining out of Kite Lake is running very fast and could be pretty dangerous if you get too close. You'll want to cross up and over that drainage well before you get all the way up to the main Kite Lake Trailhead area. I had to backtrack quite a ways to find a good spot. Overall, it was a great day. Better get out there and get that snow while you can though. 

Route: East Slopes from Moose Creek
Posted On: 5/25/2015, By: a day in the life
Info: Parked at intersection of Quartzville and Zinc. Skinned from the road and up the crest of the ridge all the way to the summit. Coverage is worse above 13,800 and there‘s a fair amount of sidestepping and route finding required to keep your skis on for the duration. I chose to bootpack about 100‘ of the final 300. We skied frozen crust from summit to about 13,200 and then spring snow and corn below that. Lower angle route if you stick to ridge crest, and no signs of instability. The snowpack on the ridge seemed to be less than a foot deep in most places but the coverage was surprisingly broad given the shallow depth. Also skied Lincoln 5/24 from the same parking spot/TH via quartzville creek/crest drive route. Great coverage and you can keep keep slope angle to a max of about 30 degrees. Steepest sections of route were around 13,200‘ and then immediately below the summit. Both areas were hard and frozen with no signs if instability early in the morning. You can ski continuously from Summit to quartzville road. There were a few inches of new snow Sunday morning and saw fresh bear tracks around 11,500‘ at 5:45 am. From 40 feet away it was confusing as to why there would be foot prints at that time of day running perpendicular to the route. 

Route: Northeast Face (from Cameron Amphitheatre)
Posted On: 5/25/2015, By: DanielL
Info: I‘d never heard of anyone skiing Bross‘ NE face from the Cameron Amphitheatre, so decided to go try it out while the coverage is as good as it is right now. We parked at Moose Creek and were able to skin all the way up from the Quartzville/Crest Rd intersection to the summit of Bross, switchbacking up powder on the NE face where it gets a bit steeper (32-35 degrees tops). We could also have skinned up to the Bross-Cameron saddle, which is less steep, and gone from there up the ridge. Coverage was amazing until about the top 200‘ below Bross‘ summit, but there was still a (barely) continuous line we pieced together. The ski down was fun - we attempted Cameron as well but the winds picked up considerably to 50+ MPH while we were up on the Cameron side of the ridge, and we didn‘t feel it was worth suffering that much for a repeat ski. Loads of powder, corn and everything in between up there - Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross are all very much in. Go get it! 

Route: "Dolly Varden Gully"
Posted On: 3/27/2015, By: RockCaCO3
Info: The road from Paris Mill to Mineral Park is mostly snow covered. Only had to click out of skis at two spots. The gully has plenty of snow, skinable the entire way. Patches of windblown snow made for good skiing in between the sastrugi. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 3/21/2015, By: JQDivide
Info: Bross has little to no snow on the west side. 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 3/15/2015, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Here's a look at the "S" Gully while we were climbing Democrat today. The snow doesn't go to the summit but it's not looking too bad.