Mt Bross (14,172), Mt Lincoln (14,286), Mt Democrat (14,148) by Brian Schultz Thursday September 23,1999
The big plan was to finish my three remaining fourteeners on this trip. I called Tim Briese on Monday night on the way to Colorado to see if we were on for the Bells. He said a storm hit the mountains over the weekend and we agreed I would head up to Maroon Lake on Wednesday morning to check out the conditions. I was disappointed to find the storm dumped a fair amount of snow on the peaks but the view at the lake was stupendous and I stayed for a long time taking pictures. I called Tim from Aspen and we decided to skip the Maroons until next summer. Although Tim has climbed North Maroon he said he'd do it again with me, perhaps even taking the traverse to it from South Maroon.
Tim still wanted to hike on Friday and we agreed to climb Bierstadt and the Sawtooth if the weather permitted. That posed a problem for me- I made a vow years ago not to repeat any fourteeners until I finished them all but the beautiful weather and scenic autumn were too hard to resist. After mulling over which easy peak to do as a warm-up I settled for the Lincoln trio and headed to Fairplay.
On Thursday I drove up the road to Kite Lake and parked just before the stream. The morning was clear and warm and at 7:50 I started up the west slopes of Mount Bross, this time doing the route in reverse order for something different. The hard packed scree and snow made for an easy ascent and once on top I took a 10 minute break. A sunny windless summit was just what I needed.
Getting to Lincoln was fast and I enjoyed the little bit of climbing to its summit. I stayed there for an hour while one hiker came up from Democrat and another from Quartzville Creek. Lincoln was number eight for both fellows and their excitement made me think back on my fourteener beginnings. The weather was near perfect, unlike last time in 1996, and I relished the views while chatting with the guys.
We finally headed to Cameron where we all split up, one going to Bross, the other back to Quartzville Creek and me to Democrat. The long haul down and up to Democrat left me tired and when I got to its summit I spent 15 minutes there with it all to myself. I avoided the Democrat-Cameron saddle on the descent by following a trail that took me to the ruins of a building before heading down to Kite Lake. I got back to the lake at 2:50.
There was some snow on the peaks but it wasn't a problem for hiking, it just made the views that much prettier. Today was a great day.
Total hiking time- 7 hours including all breaks