MT. DEMOCRAT
(14,148 ft.)MT. LINCOLN
(14,286 ft.)MT. BROSS
(14,172 ft.)August 18, 1996
By Tim Briese
(Note: For additional trips reports on more recent climbs I have done of these 14ers, see the More Climbs page: Mt. Bross - December ascent, Mt. Democrat - North Ridge route, Mt. Lincoln - January ascent.)
My daughter Nicole and I had been on an outing a couple of years before to Kite Lake west of Fairplay to have a look at this high mountain lake, and now we were ready to return and climb the three fourteen thousand foot peaks that surround it. Kite Lake lies above timberline at 12,000 feet, at the end of a bumpy but passable road, in a beautiful high valley ringed by tall peaks on three sides. One of the highest elevation National Forest Service campgrounds in the state lies on its grassy shore. Most people do not come here to camp, though, but to climb those three 14ers. On a summer weekend there may be dozens of cars parked at the trailhead and scores of climbers pursuing their alpine goals on the slopes nearby. Nowhere else can three 14ers be climbed on a single outing with as little effort.
Nicole and I arrived at the trailhead on a partly cloudy morning and struck off up the trail at about 7:30 a.m. with our lab Sadie. The trail headed up a broad slope north of the lake into a grassy basin beyond. Mt. Democrat towered above to the northwest, looming before us as our initial goal.
This was thirteen year old Nicole’s first attempt to climb a 14er, and I had been looking forward to this outing with her for some time. I knew that mountain climbing offers valuable rewards for a teenager, or for a person of any age, for that matter, because it builds self-esteem, teaches us that we can handle things, and creates mental and physical toughness. Nicole enthusiastically hiked along at a vigorous pace that nearly challenged my own hiking capability.
The terrain began to steepen at about 12,600 feet as we began to ascend a rougher, rocky area. The trail appeared to continue on toward a saddle to the north but we elected to leave the trail and bushwhack up a rocky slope to the west directly toward Democrat’s summit. We paused while grinding up this steep slope to admire the impressive view of the lake down in the green valley below, and we noticed its namesake kite-like shape from this lofty perspective. We could also see a few dozen other hikers scattered everywhere around us: on the trail down in the valley, on the slopes of Democrat nearby, and even on the high ridge north of Mt. Bross across the valley.
After a vigorous ascent of over a thousand feet we reached the top of the slope and thought we were almost at the summit, but were surprised to find that the summit was still a quarter of a mile further to the northwest. We hiked past a large bank of snow and a few scattered wooden remnants from an old mining structure, and a few minutes later stepped atop the summit of Mt. Democrat.
It was exciting for me to be with Nicole on her first 14er, and I could see the exhilaration and excitement glowing on her face, also. Climbing a 14er is no small accomplishment! It was a social experience of sorts, too, for there were at least ten other people on the summit with us. We studied the nice view of the ridge across to Mt. Cameron, and the pointed summit of Mt. Lincoln beyond, which was our next goal. It seemed like a surprisingly long distance away. The wind was blowing stiffly out of the northwest and the sky was growing cloudier, so we didn’t tarry long and soon began our descent.
We headed back down Democrat’s northeast slope on a route that took us directly toward the Democrat/Cameron saddle below. While coming down this slope I ruefully realized that I had committed one of the cardinal infractions of mountain climbing, and had run out of film for my camera, a mistake I learned from and have not made since. From the 13,400 foot saddle we began climbing again up the ridge toward Mt. Cameron. Cameron is a 14,238 foot summit in the midst of the other 14ers that doesn’t quite qualify for official 14er status because it doesn’t rise high enough above its connecting saddle with Mt. Lincoln. Despite this technicality, Cameron is a noble and lofty place nonetheless. We soon skirted past Cameron’s flat summit and descended slightly to the enchanting broad and flat saddle, and looked beyond at Lincoln protruding into the sky. Mt. Lincoln, perhaps the most rugged of the three 14ers here, is impressive from this vantage point, with cliffs and large chunks of broken rock guarding its southern face.
Within a few minutes we negotiated Lincoln’s west ridge and stepped atop its summit. Once again, we found ourselves amidst a small crowd of other climbers. This was a more cozy setting, though, with less elbow room, for the summit of Lincoln is not quite as roomy as the summit of Democrat. We didn’t mind, though, for mountain climbers are generally a friendly and amiable bunch, joined through an unspoken bond of kinship created by common endeavor. I usually feel more comfortable amidst a small crowd on a mountaintop than I do in a crowd anywhere else.
The wind was still blowing quite hard, perhaps at thirty miles per hour or so, and the clouds were growing darker so we soon left to continue our adventure. We retraced our steps to the broad saddle and then turned to the left and began hiking across the gentle ridge toward Mt. Bross, a mile away to the south. It was fun doing this long, high traverse, in spite of the wind that was ripping at our backs and showers of sleet that occasionally pounded against our nylon coats. I had never been up so high for so long, as we never dropped below 13,800 feet since coming up from the saddle below Democrat. Although each of the three 14ers here is relatively easy to climb by itself, climbing all three of them in one day is a more significant challenge.
When we reached the gentle north slope of Mt. Bross we began climbing once again. It was a bit appalling to come upon an old jeep road way up there, and even more so when we encountered a jeep driving on it! After one expends hours climbing several thousand feet of elevation to reach a mountaintop on foot, the grand experience of being on a summit loses a bit of its luster when one comes across a vehicle that has been driven up. At least this can happen on only a handful of our 14ers!
Presently we strode onto the broad, flat summit of Bross, and initially had to look around a bit to determine where the highest point of the summit actually was, since it is so expansive. There is plenty of room on Bross for a football field, although it would slope slightly to the south, giving the team on the north end an unfair advantage. We hunkered down behind a small rock shelter on the summit for protection from the wind while we ate some lunch and reveled in the thrill of being on our third 14er of the day. There were, of course, a number of other climbers on Bross as there had been on the other summits, but they were dispersed so widely here that one almost felt a hint of solitude.
After a few minutes we strolled over to the western side of the summit and studied our descent route. We could have followed a trail that goes down but thought it would be more interesting to descend on the long scree slopes that drop away. There were a couple of other climbers nearby who were tentatively checking it out like ourselves. I had never been on such an immense slope of scree before, but after sliding down on it for a couple of hundred feet I quickly became comfortable with it and found it to be an immensely fun way to descend a mountain. Sadie, however, found it rather intimidating to have all those small, noisy rocks sliding away under her feet, but gamely followed us down. It wasn’t until later on that I learned that such a descent is environmentally insensitive because of the erosion that it causes.
We went down perhaps a thousand feet on the scree before entering a steep gully that was filled with larger rocks and a ribbon of snow. We carefully descended the gully all the way to the base of the mountain and then burst out onto a grassy meadow in the valley below. When we looked back up at Bross we saw a climber descending the mountain a short distance to the south of where we came down, who appeared to be getting into trouble above a band of cliffs. It looked like he had his work cut out for him in backtracking and traversing across to a safer area. He had discovered one of the challenges of off-trail hiking!
The sun partially broke through the clouds as we hiked through wildflowers in the grassy meadows on the return to Kite Lake. We were quite tired when we finally returned to the trailhead at midafternoon, but we were very pleased with our climbing accomplishment, and Nicole said she couldn’t believe that she had done it. She not only climbed her first 14er that day, she climbed her first three of them!
