The Decalibrosobron, COMt. Democrat, Mt. Cameron, Mt. Lincoln, Mt. Bross, South Bross
Gerry Roach calls the tour of the Lincoln group of fourteeners the "Decalibron,"
using the first two letters of each peak's name. Since I added a peak to the end
of the trip, I changed the name to DeCaLiBroSoBron.
Thursday, August 12 I had a three-day weekend at work, so I left for Colorado after work on Thursday. There was the usual last-minute grocery shopping to do and I had to drop off a tripod at my friend John's place in El Rancho, but I finally got on the road (from El Rancho) at 6:00pm. I made pretty good time taking 285 north (with the 17 shortcut) to Fairplay and then following the trailhead instructions given by Roach to Kite Lake. Yahoo Maps indicated a travel time of seven hours to Fairplay; I made it to Kite Lake in just over five. It was just a single day away from a new moon, so it was very dark up at the campsite and I couldn't really get a feel for the mountains around me. I did, however, get to see the Persied Meteors just a single day away from their maximum. I probably saw one meteor every two minutes or so. Very clear sky, though the mountains blocked out a lot of the view. Still, the meteors made it a great night for camping. Kite Lake is a very high camp at 12,000'. It was cold up there. I only brought my summer sleeping bag and had to get up in the middle of the night to put on some fleece pants and a jacket. There was a small amount of frost on the grass in the morning. Friday, August 13 I got up at 4:30 while it was still completely dark and made a breakfast of cream of wheat. As I was cooking I could see that a single person had already gotten on trail; I could see a headlamp slowly making its way up the lower switchbacks on Democrat. I didn't see any signs of others getting ready yet, though there were many cars parked around. I was on trail by 5:30am. The first half-mile of trail is along old mining roads and by the time I made it to the base of the actual mountain slope, the sky was starting to get light. I could see the early riser far above me on the talus slope of Democrat. The ascent to Democrat is an easy set of switchbacks up relatively stable talus and only requires 2,200' of elevation gain. I reached sunlight about half-way up the peak, and ran into the guy ahead of me as he was descending just below the false summit. He had gotten to the summit at 6:30am. He was also going for the Decalibrosobron (no one else I talked to all day was interested in South Bross, somehow). The talus switchbacks end at the false summit, then there is a short flat area followed by the actual summit which rises another 50' or so. I arrived at the summit of Mount Democrat at 7:30am and had it all to myself. I could see at least six people ascending behind me by this point, however. The weather to this point had been chilly but relatively wind-less. At the summit, however, the wind picked up so I put on my full shell layer. By the time I had eaten some food and signed the register, four other people had joined me at the summit. I left and took the ridge directly down to the Democrat-Cameron saddle in order to not retrace my steps whenever possible. I got to the saddle (~750' below Democrat's summit) at 8:30. I ran into a group of three adults and two ~10 year old kids coming up from the lake at the saddle. They were just doing the Calibron. I ended up leap-frogging with them all the way to Bross. The ascent to Cameron was the last major elevation gain portion of the trip, and the weather was looking great, so I took it easy and did the 850' up in about an hour. I stopped at the humorously ungradiose summit of Cameron for some food at 9:30. The traverse over to Mount Lincoln is trivial, though the thin ridge looks exciting and the views of nearby peaks (especially Quandary) are great. Mount Lincoln was the highest point of the trip, my second official fourteener of the day, and my 70th county highpoint. When I got to the summit of Lincoln, it was covered in people. The wind had picked up at was really biting cold. This, combined with my need to find a secluded bathroom locale led to my spending approximately 10 seconds on the summit of Lincoln. I didn't take any photos or even a GPS point (though my track log will confirm that I went there :) I dropped down to the Cameron-Bross saddle and managed to find a spot to take care of my business without the hoardes of people seeing me. Compared to Democrat and Lincoln, Bross really looks bland. It sort of reminded me of... Cameron. It's just a big, round pile of small rocks. The 300' of ascent to the summit went easily as it was mostly on a mining road. The summit of Bross is humorously flat. It is a big flat plateau and it was difficult to tell where the highest point was. I assumed that it was where the CMC register was and took my GPS location there. The wind was incredible. I would estimate that it was at least 30-35 mph sustained. My new Arc'Teryx stormshell was awesome. I shared the wind break on Bross with seven other people. We all left Bross at the same time, but I went over to South Bross while they went down the regular descent trail back to the lake. The trip to South Bross is easy and only about half a mile. When leaving South Bross, the canonical route is to climb back to Bross and then take the trail. However, I could see that the trail curved around towards South Bross and if I just went straight down the scree slope to the north, I would intersect the trail about 1000' down. So I went skiing down the fine loose scree. It was actually quite enjoyable, as the looseness makes for soft footsteps plus a slide that makes each step count for three. My trekking poles kept me upright and relatively secure. The trail, on the other hand, was hard-packed and very steep. I actually beat the other seven people to the point where I intersected the trail, despite my half-mile detour. The remaining 1000' of descent on the trail were surprisingly ball-busting. My knees hurt, my quads hurt, and it was not fun at all. If I had to do it again, I'd find a way to just scree ski the whole way down. It is definitely the only way to travel on Bross' slope. Haggard from the annoying descent, I arrived at the truck at 12:45pm - a 7:15 trip. I was really tired from my lack of sleep, so I took a nap in my truck before driving in to Breckinridge for lunch at the Breckinridge Brewery - highly recommended. I goofed off in Breckinridge for a bit too long, as it turns out. I was going to drive over to Guanella Pass and do Bierstadt, Evans, & Spalding the following day - but the Guanella Pass road had been closed for construction just before I got to it. My backup plan of Grays, Torreys, & Edwards ended up getting rained out, so the Decalibrosobron was it for my three-day weekend. Written by Mouser Williams on
2004.08.14
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