mount democrat - 14148' - class 1
mount cameron - 14238' - class 1
mount lincoln - 14286' - class 1
mount bross' - 14172' - class 1
november 2011
Mount Lincoln on SPLincoln Falls Ice Climbing Information |
These easy 14ers surrounding Kite Lake are some of the easiest peaks to climb in Colorado. The loop hike that bags them all is called the DeCaLiBron (short for the names of each peak) and the trail traverses each peak on class 1 terrain. The trailhead at Kite Lake is at 12,000 feet which is well above treeline making it a short hike in total elevation gain. I did these in November so the crowds were not around which was nice but the wind was brutal. The banner above shows Mount Lincoln, the highest of the group from Wheeler Lake. A friend and I made the drive up to Kite Lake early in the morning and started up the trail towards Mount Democrat. Within an hour we were at the ridge and overlooking the Climax Mine and Fremont Pass down the other side. We hiked up the standard east ridge and quickly made the summit. There was some snow to contend with but the ridges were all completely clear. We then started our way to Mount Cameron, a mere hump on the ridge barely worth mentioning. Mount Lincoln is where the real mass is and as the highest peak in the entire Park Range, it has stature and prominence but lacks visual appeal. It is merely another hump however the mountains does have some cliffs if you look for them. On the traverse to Mount Lincoln, we were shredded with 70+ MPH winds that almost took me off my feel and flying away! Luckily I had full gear on and the temperature wasn't that cold. The final traverse to Bross was less windy and warmer which was nice. The summit of Bross is a joke. You could probably house an army on its summit and I didn't even bother to locate the highest point as it felt like a little bit of Kansas in the Colorado Rockies! The descent down Bross was like walking on ball bearings the entire way down until the basin below where we dealt with the only post-holing of the day to get back to the car at Kite Lake. Honestly, I won't do this hike again but it was nice to have the peaks to ourselves. One thing to note about Mount Lincoln however is that in the winter it holds one of the best ice climbing areas near Denver on the mountains' lower northeast face a few hundred feet above the Montgomery Reservoir. A large cliff dropping from the Lincoln Amphitheater provides a shaded area with constant flow of water to provide a large area if waterfall ice to form offering many single pitch pillars and a handful of multi-pitch ice climbing routes.
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