Mt. Bross

Route: Decalibron
Posted On: 10/5/2019, By: aim54pheonix
Info: Trail is completely dry except for a small 50 ft section right at the beginning. From just below the Cameron summit until off of Bross, the wind was blowing pretty hard. Be sure to pack something that can block the wind. The overall temps were probably between 30-40 after the sun came up so as long as you can block the wind, it was a pretty nice day. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 8/24/2019, By: TheClassyDuck
Info: Crazy day on Mt. Bross. Parking was a nightmare at 0500 as it was already backed up to the second switchback. My buddy and I initially planned to do the Decalibron, but that quickly changed as the peak conditions deteriorated fast starting at 13,500'. We're moving into wind season now so be careful guys! We made it to the summit and were battered by some insane winds. Besides that, the trail is the typical loose and chunky Bross we all love. Crazy day to summit. Stay safe everyone. 

Route: Decalibron
Posted On: 8/19/2019, By: lizstoyan
Info: Got to the trailhead about 5:15am and were able to park really close to the parking lot. We decided to go up Bross first, so the order was Bross - Lincoln - Cameron - Democrat. I didn't want to go down Bross, since I had heard it was steep with loose rock, and I HATE descending as it is, aka my knees always kill and I'm always just fighting not falling haha. Times were roughly: 5:30am start , summited Bross 7:30am, Lincoln 8:20am, Cameron 8:45am, Democrat 11am (we stopped for lunch and were not pushing pace at this point), back to car at 12:45pm. No snow issues - anything that is present is easily avoidable. We had great conditions, though extremely windy on Bross and Lincoln. Awesome hike all around! 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 8/5/2019, By: ultradoughboy
Info: This is a great route for those wanting minimal exposure/rock fall for a 14er. The route from TH to the top can be done in a 4WD and 3 side-by-sides were going up as I descended . 4 of the 4.5 miles is out in the open, but is still quiet scenic. Passing by several old mines was cool. Wildflowers in full bloom!
Zero snow, zero mud, zero issues the whole way. I think if the road to the trailhead was in better shape, many more would do this route. 

Route: Decalibron
Posted On: 7/26/2019, By: ilikereds
Info: Great day on the trails! I did the Decalibron counter-clockwise and avoided most people until going up Democrat. Left TH at 0530 and summited Bross at 0715. The abandoned truck on the saddle between Bross and Cameron is still there. Encountered first snow on the side of Cameron on the way to Lincoln. Easily traversed! Summited Lincoln at 0812. Summited Cameron at 0847. Made my way down and started seeing a few more people coming up. Summited Democrat at 1027. Route up is challenging. Lots of missing cairns and lots trail often (up and down). Little bit of snow on the false summit that was easy to cross. Saw quite a few heading up around noon with threatening clouds rolling in...not the smartest thing to do! Back at TH at 12:15. 

Route: Decalibron
Posted On: 7/15/2019, By: treymdominick0351
Info: Today I was able to summit all 4. I went counter clockwise and started with Mt. Bross, because everyone else started with Mt democrat. I took B1 the east slope up of Bross and I encountered no snow. From Bross I jumped on the standard route to to Lincoln. there is on snow patch still holding on but you can walk around it, but I just walked on top of it, because the boot pack was nice. No snow on Lincoln, no snow on cameron. I didn't encounter snow again until summiting Democrat. You can avoid all the snow on the way up to the summit, but when you are about .3 miles from the peak you will have to cross a snow field to reach the top. On the way down you will hit a few more snow fields to get to the TH, but there are tracks cut into most of the route so it is easy going on the way down.

I didn't use any traction. trail runners and poles is all you might need.

round trip distance: 7.68
gain: 3435 ft
time from the car and back: 3:15 

Route: "Dolly Varden Gully"
Posted On: 7/14/2019, By: CoulKurt
Info: Snow starts a few hundred feet up from Mineral Point lot. Continues up to about 13500. Skied most of it this morning. Certainly not smooth but maybe 1500 foot of vert. Enjoy. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/7/2019, By: wanderingsteve
Info: The route is mostly free of snow. Don't let the snowfields shortly after the trailhead dissuade you. There is one roughly fifty foot snow gully to cross around 13,300 feet. I didn't use any traction on the way up (I did have poles), but did decide to put on my microspikes for the softer snow on the descent. You could get by without them as long as you're comfortable on snow. After that, there is no snow, including on the summit. Loose rocks throughout above 12,500 feet. Be careful descending and if conditions are wet. 

Route: Decalibron
Posted On: 6/28/2019, By: jkuntzman
Info: Bross, Democrat and Lincoln are all basically summer conditions. Theres still some snow but very limited amounts and easily avoided or easy to get thru for the most part. Only issue on Bross was a little over halfway up where the trail where it turns left (see topo map) the route is covered by snow/ice. Probably fine with snowshoes but we tried to go around in the rock which was all loose rock so bad choice. There was a path that seemed like a much better choice off to the right a bit but that's not the official route. Also there's a truck in between Bross and Lincoln that someone had fun destroying.

Democrat was covered in snow anywhere from 2-4 ft deep at different spots. Snowshoes were helpful but depending on the time of day, microspikes/crampons would've done just as well or better I think. Glissaded almost the whole way down and that was definitely the right choice.

Great hike! 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 5/27/2019, By: mia_dandrea
Info: Beautiful day up on Bross. Took the S Gully up and there is still a lot of snow. Started around 7am and the trail from Kite lake was packed down pretty well before the gully and I was fine in just boots to start. Snowshoes or skis necessary for nearly the entire gully. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 5/14/2019, By: pgerskovich
Info: I started at the closed gate at 7am. I made it to the entry area for the west slope route and it appeared that most of the footprints were going up the right side of the gully (rather than the standard route up the left side). So I followed the footprints up the left side. The snow was solid and crusty enough to use crampons. (When I got higher up I saw the problem with using the standard route up the left side of the gully, there is no good way to cross over the gully and make it up the left side.) So whoever made the path up the right side had the right idea. On my way back down (around noon) the snow was getting mushy. I needed to put snowshoes on to trudge back to the parking lot. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 5/11/2019, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Parking at Winter TH closure, snow from that point to the summit. We broke trail up the west ridge which is almost 100% covered in snow. Summit was a wind factory, but cool sharing it with Bill (even though I didn't introduce myself). Areas look "in" with recent snow but are notably not (raises hand as I found out the hard way). If anyone finds a gopro Hero4 in the spring/summer months, would greatly appreciate a DM. 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 5/12/2019, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Parked at the current gate/closure 1.4 miles below the lake. We skinned up the remaining road and skinned up the S Gully and to the summit. Then skied the S Gully which had a mix of powder, crust and rocks hiding under the surface up high. On this day, I give the skin ascent an "A-" and the ski a "B-"

Last photo courtesy of Otina. 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 5/6/2019, By: Madison08
Info: The road is open about 1.2 miles from kite lake. We did not need to use our snowshoes at all on the approach (yay!). The S gully is in perfect condition right now and it is filled in all the way to the ridge, no scree to deal with at all. I'm attaching a picture near the bottom of the gully. 

Route: "S Gully"
Posted On: 4/27/2019, By: gregpeak
Info: I climbed and skied the S gully today. There was about 4 inches of new snow last night which made for good turns low in the gully. It was very windy so the upper half of the gully is pretty icy. The snow goes to about 150 ft below the summit.