MT. DEMOCRAT (14,148’)

MT. LINCOLN (14,286’)

MT. BROSS (14, 172’)

September 18, 2015

By Tim Briese

7.6 miles, 3500’ elevation gain, 8:25 roundtrip time

My new son-in-law Rod wanted to climb his first 14er, so I thought why not three of them? I had not climbed this trio of peaks all in one day for about fifteen years so I thought it would be fun to do again. We drove to the Kite Lake Trailhead on this September morning with Rod's dog Hazel and my dog Abby. Unfortunately it was a chilly and windy day, but that did not faze Rod a bit, since he had grown up as an outdoorsman in wild and windy Wyoming.

rod at the trailhead

After donning our wind gear we headed up the well worn trail north of Kite Lake at 815 am. The dogs ran about excitedly. We climbed upward at a nice clip and shortly before we reached the saddle between Democrat and Lincoln we overtook two fellows climbing with their two teenage daughters. One of them turned out to be none other than Dr. Brett Matheson, my longtime dermatologist who was an occasional mountain climber. He knew well about my mountain climbing adventures, since he eagerly asked me about them at every annual appointment, kept notes about them in my medical file, introduced me to his whole staff, and generally treated me like a rock star every time I saw him. Today was no different, as he treated me like a celebrity as he introduced me to his doctor climbing friend and the two girls. After this little meeting Rod and I pressed on up the trail. 

just below the democrat/lincoln saddle, with the ridge up toward democrat beyond

From the saddle we hiked on up the trail through the talus to the summit of Democrat. We arrived there at 1025, for an ascent time of only 2:10 from the trailhead. I knew my son-in-law was fit, but I didn’t know how he would do with the thin air at this elevation, and he held his own extremely well. The cold wind was blowing quite hard but that didn’t dampen our exhilaration about being there.

rod and hazel on his first fourteener

About 15 minutes after we arrived on the summit the good doctor and his party arrived and I was pressed into service as the photographer to record for posterity the momentous event of the girls on their first 14er with their dads. Rod said later that seeing that event was one of the highlights of the climb for him. The girls had had all they wanted to handle so were headed back down with their fathers but Rod and I were going to continue on to the other peaks.

view of mt. lincoln from democrat.  it is the pointed peak in the distance.  mt. bross is at the far right.

We cruised down the trail back to the saddle and headed up the ridge on the nice trail toward Lincoln. We hiked over the summit of unranked Cameron Peak (14,238) and stopped on its eastern slope in a spot partly shielded from the wind for a lunch break.

on the trail up to cameron

Then we made a quick push over to Mt. Lincoln.

the trail to mt. lincoln

The wind was whipping hard on the summit of Lincoln, too.

me on mt. lincoln

rod on mt. lincoln.  mt. bross is beyond at the left.

After a short break on this scenic summit we headed back down to the Lincoln/Cameron saddle and then headed left on a trail toward Bross.

on the trail toward bross

There was an excellent trail that went over to Bross but it did not go all the way to the summit but instead curiously contoured across the slope less than 200 yards to the west of and below the summit, and then headed down the peak’s southwest slopes. I had forgotten to check online to see if climbing Bross was legal nowadays because I knew it had been off limits for a while but that some sort of agreement regarding these peaks had been reached in the last few years. Some signs indicated that the trail we were on was perfectly legal but that access to the peak might be restricted. The intent of the signs seemed kind of ambiguous to us, with a sort of "climb at your own risk" message. Why would a nice trail be built up to within a stone’s throw of a restricted summit? We decided to run up and tag the summit as we had seen other climbers in front of us do. Interestingly, there was a black jeep driving around slowly on the old mine roads on and below the summit.

the jeep on the southern end of bross' summit plateau

Then we headed down the trail on the ridge to the southwest of Bross. I had never been on this trail before, having only slid down the scree slope on Bross’ west side many years ago, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out to be much steeper and rougher than I expected.

kite lake and the trailhead in the valley below

After we had gone down a ways we stopped for a break above a very steep slope that dropped away below. Rod took off his pack and set it beside the trail and after a bit it took off and began rolling down the steep slope below! The pack was round in shape and rapidly picked up speed and soon disappeared. The terrain was far too steep, loose and dangerous to go after it and there were rugged cliff bands a short distance below. We decided to search for it when we got lower. Then we noticed that Hazel began limping badly as her front paws were torn by the rough rocks. It got to the point where she did not even want to move. Things were starting to look a little desperate as we had a long, steep and rough descent remaining ahead of us. Rod tried carrying her for a bit but the terrain was too dangerously steep for that. Then we devised temporary shoes for her with some gloves that Rod had along that we secured with a roll of electrical tape that I had among the emergency supplies in my pack. We slowly crept down the rough trail in this manner and we finally reached easier terrain but were still some distance from the trailhead. Rod took the dogs on down to the truck while I contoured across a rugged talus slope in search of his lost pack. As I scanned the rugged cliff bands above I knew the chances of spotting it were essentially zero. The point where it was lost was at least a thousand feet above and there was nothing but rugged cliffs, towers, and talus blocks between here and there. This incident was obviously a damper for our climb today, because the pack held his phone, driver’s license and other important things, but Rod maintained a cheerful spirit and good perspective nevertheless. He walked up to join me after taking the dogs to the truck and we returned to the trailhead together about 440 and headed for home. It was a fun and rewarding adventure to climb these first three fourteeners with Rod, in spite of the troubles we had on the descent.

hazel with her makeshift shoes when we got home