Democrat, Lincoln, and Bross

It was a long day.

I now have nicknames for these peaks. Democrat is foggy mountain, Cameron is yellow mountain, Lincoln is gray mountain, and Bross is boring mountain.

The route we took around the cirque (with an out-and-back for Lincoln) is known as the "decalibron" (short for DEmocrat CAmeron LIncoln BROss somethiNg). You start at Kite Lake, climb up to Democrat, descend about a thousand feet to the saddle between Democrat and Cameron, climb Cameron, hike out to Lincoln, hike along the saddle back over to Bross, then go pretty much straight down the side of Bross back to Kite Lake.

That last bit was the interesting part, because we went scree surfing. Then talus surfing, and when it got to be boulder surfing, it was time to be careful (very careful, the boulders were loose on that steep slope). We didn't exactly plan to do it that way -- I read that there was a trail down, but if we were following it, it ran out, and there we were.

Scree surfing, of course, is when you slide down the side of the mountain on the loose scree (while standing, until you mess up), with the mountain sliding below you. Kind of like skiing or something, but not really. All things considered, I would have preferred not to have done it, since the erosion it causes is considerable (parts of the side of the mountain looked like they'd be outright stripped), but since we were already half-way down and semi-lost, we didn't have a whole lot of choice.

The weather was pretty iffy -- not as bad as the Thursday before when I turned around after making it to the base of Quandry, but if I'd been going solo, I might have turned around again. Early on, clouds covered the summit, although they blew off after noon. It was very cold and windy (and a little rainy at times) so we got good use of our shells (my companion, fortunately, took most of my advice on what to wear and pack, or we certainly would have had to have turned back).

In the afternoon, we got a bunch of fluffy clouds, so it was pretty nice. Typical summer afternoon weather (but still windy up there). By the time we were descending off of Bross, it had started to thicken up, and we hadn't made it to the bottom before we started hearing thunder. By the time we made it back to the meadow, it had started raining, and we were soaked by the time we got back to the car. Never did see any lightning, but heard lots of thunder coming from near the peaks above, which is always a disturbing thing.

All in all, the trip took us about nine hours (we started at around seven, not in any hurry getting going at the trailhead with the lousy morning weather). Not really too fast, I zoomed right up Democrat with almost no effort, then slowed down a lot going up Cameron, and got back some of my energy coming down from Lincoln. My knee didn't bother me too much (the scree surfing was good for it, the cold made it stiff), although I felt kind of lousy on the top of Bross (not altitude sickness, I don't think, even with headache and disturbed stomach, just the combination of a serious sleep deficit and irregular diet of late), and the Ibuprofen I took might have had an effect on the knee.

Afterwards, we went to the Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, and I had a couple Peak One Porters, and then I went home and more or less went to sleep. Eventually.

Kite Lake

Valerie casts a huge shadow

Filling out the registry on Lincoln

Valerie and the survey marker on Lincoln

Bross is such a boring looking mountain, isn't it?

The valley to the northwest of Lincoln

Me, coming down from Lincoln

Me, on Bross

The scree