Mt. Democrat

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 6/5/2022, By: Agstrohmeier
Info: Skied the south slopes today. The approach is getting less continuous but it's not terrible. Weak freeze overnight, the top 1200' skied very well at 8:45, but below the lake on the east facing aspects it was fully saturated mashed potatoes. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 6/4/2022, By: stickmann
Info: Early start to climb Democrat's south slope. Decent snow coverage but thinning fast in the section before clearing the willows. Past tree line there are still mostly continuous snow lines, especially the main chute that is pictured in the route description photos. I completed the loop and the only snow of consequence left is the last section of Democrat's east slope and Bross's south gully. No surprises but the east slope was already getting sloppy by 7am. There is a nice booter or two up the east slope, though. The upper sections of Bross's south gully kept an icy top layer until much later, ruining my plans to glissade down it. The rest of the route has intermittent snow that I didn't think warranted traction. No need for flotation. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 5/28/2022, By: Suley888
Info: Hiked entire Decalibron today. Reached the locked gate about 1.1 miles from kite lake trailhead at 5 am and there were hardly any spots left. The last mile of road has no snow, but it does at some time. Bathrooms are locked at trailhead. We summitted Democrat first. We were fine with just spiked and boots as there was a decent crust. We saw someone in shorts who was trail running. Reached Bross by noon and the way back down was a slush fest with some postholing. Especially the 1/2 mile to kite lake trailhead. No permits to pay a fee yet. This is still winter conditions. Start early and end early to avoid slushy slopes and a possible wet avalanche. 

Route: East Slope
Posted On: 5/8/2022, By: mtnmike
Info: Beautiful but seriously windy today. Consistent snow cover top to bottom with just a few rocky/bare areas. Traction was needed in the morning but everything was mush by afternoon. Probably going to be similar for several more days until it really starts to melt out. Side note-if you were on Democrat today and lost your cell phone, I have it. Post a comment or DM via the FB group so we can get it back to you! 

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) 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 1/30/2022, By: roevans88
Info: Parked about a mile down the road from the summer trailhead. Started around 6:45 turned up from the lake. Snow conditions seemed stable so continued into the bowl below the south face of Democrat. Stuck to the middle couloir as it was still in the shade. Snow conditions were good nice styrofoam type snow and perfect for crampons. At the top of the couloir snow thinned out and gave way to boulders and scree so probably could have taken off my crampons but I saw a decent snow slope leading to the summit. Summited at around 11:30 in windy but relatively warm conditions. Made my way down the ridge to the saddle between dem and Cameron. Ridgeline up to Cameron had a nice track already from several climbers, crampons were nice to have in some sections but probably not necessary. Made it to the Cameron summit at 2:15. Cut across the summit plateau to find the trail again on the other side after a short glissade down the snow. Trail to Bross was easy and required no traction. Opted not to summit Bross as my water was running low and knew the descent down the east ridge would be a tricky one. Coming down the east ridge wasnt too hard to follow but would definitely recommend traction as there's a fair amount of snow cover and trail is a bit steep in places. Fortunately had some good tracks to follow and eventually made it back to kite lake just as the sun was falling behind Mt. Buckskin. Great day to be in the hills. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 10/30/2021, By: Buckie06
Info: The trail is icy and hard pack. I was very glad to have microsoikes 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 10/10/2021, By: tbontempi
Info: Snow drifts up to 3 feet on decalibron loop, spikes, poles and gaiters and your good to go. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 9/19/2021, By: RyanOhNoPleaseStop
Info: Lots of people hiking the full loop. At any given time there was probably ~10 people loitering on each of the summits. 10/10 would do again. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 9/5/2021, By: Alpinefroggy
Info: Got a Prius to the second hairpin any farther is impossible as the road gets really bad. Not a problem otherwise. But after all, it is only a few hundred yards you tack on. One small area where choosing a good line is necessary. Conclusion? Any 2wd car can make it close to kite lake. Make sure to pay. They are going around getting folks. Meta thing about the loop as well, go up bross down democrat. Follow the bross closure, it's worthless anyways to go to the summit of a flat pile of scree with no better views than Lincoln. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln
Posted On: 9/9/2021, By: ltduffy123
Info: quick out-and-back 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 7/19/2021, By: Xeroxly
Info: Started at around 5:30 and finished all four of the summits in just under 7 hours. The trail is clear and I never had to deal with snow whatsoever. As for the back side of Bross, really wasn't as bad as it had been built up to be as a descent. For those of you bold enough to start with Bross, I would not want to go up that same trail. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 7/7/2021, By: amderr22
Info: Just wanted to update folks: I spoke to the owners yesterday and the peaks are still closed to public access. They are working on installing new signage to keep people on trail and help reduce liability concerns. Please respect the closure to help us protect long-term public access to this area. For updated info on access for these peaks, visit this Forest Service page, as the owner will notify them once the area is open again: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/psicc/recarea/?recid=12505 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 6/24/2021, By: strausnb
Info: Left trailhead at 4:00am, the kite lake stream crossing was difficult for me to stay dry. Obviously it was dark so I probably did not choose the best route but a change of socks would be smart in case your feet get wet. Only a few snow patches to cross for the peaks, although I did have issues with slipping on democrat (I think the rocks were lightly iced over). Got back to TH at 8:30am. 

Route: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
Posted On: 6/22/2021, By: Gweilo climber
Info: Only about 50' of total snow to cross - a couple of small streams to cross. Started about 4.45 am when it started to get light - a lot of low fog that burned off as we gained elevation. Summit conditions were dry - no snow, cool and windy we spent far more time on the ascent as we lost the trail at least twice - especially right after the Cameron saddle and ending scrambling up to the 13,900 plateau. since we only saw one other group ahead of us we couldn't see cairns or obvious trails. Because of that we added at least an hour to our climb and decided to not do Cameron and Lincoln and headed down after summiting. We interacted with a total of 12 hikers the whole day, so plenty of people on the way down.