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Myself and Joey who flew in from Iowa had planned on summiting Democrat,Cameron,Lincoln & Bross at least thats what the plan was. However conditions would not allow for that to happen at least not on this day.
We left Aurora at 3:30 am and arrived at the TR at 5:30 am. After adjusting our equipment we set off in the dark via headlamps. It was not cold about 20 degrees and light snow. The 3 mile hike up the road to Kite lake was kind of peaceful and quiet. As it became light outside we were nearing Kite Lake. We threw on the snowshoes and the snow was picking up and visibility was worsening. I was breaking trail as Joey followed and about a mile past the Lake I got of course instead of staying right by the fallen down mining building I went left to some steeper terrain and realized after looking right that we were off trail. So I had a chance to use my ice axe for the first time be it not very steep good practice on self arrest. So once we made it back to the trail we continued up about another half mile and the wind started picking up more and visibility worsened when we both agreed this was as far as we would go.
It was a good decision and normally I am very persistant in getting to the top but today was not our day. I will wait until the road opens again to the lake and the private property issues get resolved before attempting again.
Oh and by the way as we were getting back to the car the sun started to shine. I guess that is how it goes.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
I‘d say sorry you didn‘t make your summit, but you probably learned and grew more as a mountaineer yesterday than you ever would have summiting on a nice day. That white-out vertigo can be really dis-orienting, eh? How do you like those new-stlye MSR snowshoes? I‘m in the market for new snowshoes, but I heard the large version of those are $300!
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