5/22/2016 Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross Posted On: 5/23/2016, By: polar Info: Mostly wind crust snow between all the summits, with some bare patches here and there. It's probably doable without any floatation, although I did the whole thing with my snowshoes because my snowboard boots have no traction. Saw a single ski track and a single boot track along the route, so people have done it in both. |
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5/22/2016 Route: South Slope Posted On: 5/31/2016, By: cardgenius Info: Started our hike at 3:40am. Was a little worried about the overnight freeze as we saw water trickling down the closed dirt road. Our worries were gone quickly though as the water was frozen a little ways up the road. Snow was hard packed and had a good boot pack the whole way up. Summited just before 8am and hung out till 9. The ski down was nice but we could have waited a little longer as the snow was still hard packed up top but did get softer the lower we went. Coverage was good and didn't have to do much manuvering to avoid thin coverage. Was able to ski the whole way down and even dropped into the creek so we could make it to the car without taking off the skis and walking. Was back at the car around 9:30. |
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5/13/2016 Route: Decalibron Loop Posted On: 5/13/2016, By: Misi197 Info: Road in fine conditions up until the private property. The walk up to Kite Lake was hard packed with patches of dirt along the edges. I wore spikes all day, carried snowshoes but never put them on. A few stretches on Cameron and the saddle to Bross require no traction whatsoever. Powdery snow was on the face up to the saddle between Democrat and Cameron, as well as on the ridge up to the Democrat saddle. The trip down Bross was by far the most enjoyable I've ever had...no scree fest, but instead solid snow that I sank only 2-3 inches into. Left the car at 6:00 a.m. and was back at 1:00 p.m. The drive back down to Alma was soggy from large melting snow piles. The Kite Lake road is going to be a mess in a few weeks once the melting really starts. |
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5/12/2016 Route: East Slope Posted On: 5/12/2016, By: Brian Thomas Info: Keep in mind that the overnight low was only 20 the night before the hike, but I was able to summit today in snowshoes without postholing once. At most my snowshoes sank in 4-6 inches on windloaded areas. A continuous ski is possible from the summit. Did not summit any of the other 3 today. |
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5/1/2016 Route: East Slope Posted On: 5/2/2016, By: Generalcuz Info: Hiked from the 2.5 mile marker to Kite Lake before the weather closed in and the prospect of summiting came to an end. Knee deep snowshoe trenching from the last mine building to the Kite Lake restroom. Was fun, but tiring. If someone can beat it up there in the next few days to try and keep the trench packed, it could be the start of opening this area up. |
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2/12/2016 Route: East Slope Posted On: 2/12/2016, By: KLeon Info: The road to kite lake is free of snow about half the way. No chance of getting a car or tuck through the initial snow drifts though. For me snowshoes were very helpful from a half mile before kite lake to around 12500 with the deepest snow up to my hip just north of the lake. I managed to post hole a few times even with snow shoes. Above 12500 I used crampons but micro spikes or even just deep tread boots would be fine. It looks like a good size slide above kite lake occurred in the past few days. Snowmobile tracks were all over the same slope. |
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1/13/2016 Route: East Slope Posted On: 1/14/2016, By: LoveThisSite Info: It was a windy day! We wore snowshoes until about 13,000 ft. Beyond that micro spikes were sufficient. Recommend sticking to the summer route above 13k. We made the mistake of going straight up the face and it was very tiring postholing between the rocks. Avy danger seemed minimal. Bross looked completely dry, and the ridge from Democrat to Cameron also looked mostly dry. |
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1/2/2016 Route: East Slope Posted On: 1/2/2016, By: Unknown Info: Did all the Kite Lake 14ers today with a small group. Snowshoes are needed in a few spots: high on the road to the saddle between Democrat and Cameron. You‘ll also need them if you descend off Bross to Kite Lake. Once on the ridge, snowshoes are not needed as it‘s either hardpack snow or wind blown. |
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12/26/2015 Route: East Slope Posted On: 12/28/2015, By: fisherman188 Info: Camped about 3 miles south of the Kite Lake trailhead on Friday night. Snow was 4-12 inches on the rest of the route and up to Kite Lake with higher drifts in some places. There were some tracks possibly a day or two old that went maybe half a mile further than me but then stopped. I had intentions of getting the other peaks in the area but with the snow, going was much slower than normal. Starting at 7am with temperature of -10 F, I didn‘t make the summit until 12:30 and was exhausted. Knowing that I still had to make the extra 3 mile trek back to the car, I turned around. I didn‘t take my snow shoes and only used mountaineering boots and Microspikes but shoes would have definitely been useful. A little before gaining the ridge and beyond I would sometime post hole up to the thigh but then the next few steps might be firmer and only sink down a few inches. The saddle up to Lincoln/Cameron looker to have deeper snow in patches and some bare spots while the saddle of the Bross looked pretty well wind swept. Over all it was a good hike, made better by a perfect sunny day. Though, beware the negative wind chills about halfway up the ridge up to summit and make sure you have proper attire. |
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12/19/2015 Route: East Slope Posted On: 12/20/2015, By: dereks95 Info: Snow conditions are very sparse on the entire loop. I attempted to ski in from Paris Mills but the road was completely dry in many spots. If not for one sizable snow drift immediately after Paris Mills, one could drive to within .5 mile of Kite Lake. From Kite Lake I was able to climb the entire East Ridge route without snow shoes or spikes. There was occasional knee-deep post-holing in limited sections but nothing to seriously impede progress. From the saddle, the route up Cameron and over to Bross is almost 100% dry. Very windy on top and I had to walk sideways to get to Bross. From Bross, the route down is as good as it can get. There‘s enough consolidated snow in the gully to hold the scree in check but not enough to pose a danger. I was able to ski a few sections of the road on the way down alternating between walking and skiing. |
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12/6/2015 Route: East Slope Posted On: 12/6/2015, By: tad_g Info: Virtually same conditions as described by bmcqueen on 2/12. Snowshoes very handy from Kite Lake to 12,700. |
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12/2/2015 Route: East Slope Posted On: 12/2/2015, By: bmcqueen Info: No flotation needed up to Kite Lake although a couple of drifts were a bit annoying. Still dirt sections of road interspersed with the drifted parts. From Kite Lake to about 12,400, I used my snowshoes, then switched over to spikes for the rest of the way through the circuit. Upper flanks of all of the peaks are pretty wind scoured. |
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11/22/2015 Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and 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. |
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11/15/2015 Route: East Slope Posted On: 11/17/2015, By: jaredv83 Info: We were able to summit all 4 (Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross) in about 6 hours. The road to Kite Lake Trailhead was passable in a small SUV until the last 0.2 miles when snow drifts got a little deeper. The first mile of trail had some deeper snow where snowshoes could have been nice. Beyond that there were a few areas with deeper snow drifts, but overall it didn't affect the route much. I had microspikes with me just in case, but did not need to use them. The last mile or so of the descent to the Kite Lake Trailhead had deeper snow similar to the first mile. Snowshoes might have been nice again here, but for 80% of the route snowshoes were not necessary. |
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11/4/2015 Route: East Slope Posted On: 11/7/2015, By: climbingbiz Info: Light dusting of snow on the road, made it to kite lake with a high clearance 4wd. Tagged all 4 peaks in about 6 hours. Snowshoes were not needed, minimal post-holing. Micro spikes were used 30% of the time, probably necessary. Direct descent from bross was in good shape. |
