![]() Map of route from Kite Lake to Mount Democrat |
![]() Abandoned mine shack above Kite Lake |
![]() Rich on the saddle between Democrat and Cameron |
![]() Rich on the east ridge of Democrat |
![]() Rich Wendling and Dennis Zickefoose on the summit of Mount Democrat |
![]() Rich on the summit of Democrat |
![]() Mount Cameron from Mount Democrat |
![]() Mount Bross from Mount Democrat |
![]() Snowfield at the saddle between Democrat and Cameron |
![]() Mount Democrat from below Lake Emma. |
Due to work schedules, starting a family, and other factors, I haven't
had many opportunities to do any climbing in quite a while. I finally decided,
the heck with it, I'm going back to Colorado. I had gained quite a bit
of weight since the last trip (note the picture) so I chose a fairly easy
climb. My best friend Dennis came with me on this trip. He had never climbed
a mountain before. On July 1, we drove from Fort Worth to Kite Lake, which
is at the foot of Democrat, Bross, and Cameron. There was still a lot of
snow the next morning as we began our ascent, so we couldn't follow the
trail the entire way.
We climbed the first little bit to an old mine shack at about 12,400 feet. What amazed me was how the miners had tunneled into the side of a rather shear cliff, about 350 feet up the side. It must have been rather treacherous to traverse over to the mine every morning on their way to work. And I thought my commute was bad! At about 13,400 feet, we came to the saddle between Democrat to the west and Cameron to the northeast. Our original plan was to do Democrat first, then do Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross. However, I discovered that being 40 pounds overweight made it a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. The ridge from the saddle up to the summit of Democrat is very rocky with no real trail - the trail that did exist to the south of the summit was rather icy - so it was a rather tough climb for two out-of-shape flatlanders. Dennis did better than I did. When we returned to the saddle after reaching the summit, we decided to call it a day, and went back to camp rather than bagging all four peaks. I guess that gives us a reason to go back some time. |
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