Mt. Bross - 14,172 ft

Mt. Lincoln - 14,286 ft

Mt. Cameron - 14,238 ft

Date:  5-27-06 & 6-4-06

Climbers: George & Abby Barnes, Nate & Crystal

Route:  Bross via W. Slopes, Lincoln and Cameron via E. Shoulder

USGS Quadrangles: Climax, Alma
 

Today's trip reports brought to you by Abby.

Trip Report for Bross:

George, Nate, Crystal, and I along with Molly, the yellow lab, left from the Kite Lake camping area bright and early. It was a cool morning but surprisingly tame as far as Kite Lake weather goes.  I had agreed to another climb up Bross only with the promise of being able to go over to Cameron and Lincoln because then I would finally be done with all 4 in the group. This was Crystal’s first 14ner and I’m not a big one for chossy climbs so George and Nate had planned a nice little snow climb up the west slopes of Bross.  Snow climbs have never been a favorite of mine because I’m short and can never keep up with George’s large kicked steps and post-holing for me means up to my thighs in snow and then I’m in rather a predicament when trying to extricate myself from the posthole.  But this climb changed my mind about snow climbs and I might even be able to say I quite enjoy them now.  What changed my mind you ask?  Crampons!!  Crampons made the snow climb enjoyable and I happily French techniqued my way up a good portion of Bross.  Nate and George were nice enough to leave the crampons for the girls while they kickstepped along beside us. Thanks guys!  Just below the summit we were smacked with very very gusty winds that had us grabbing for all available warm clothing and just trying to stay upright.  George had the difficult task of telling me I had just done Bross again for nothing because there was no way we were going to get Cameron and Lincoln. I haven’t quite subscribed to the “it doesn’t have to be fun to be fun” motto that George climbs by so climbing Bross for “the fun of it” was not my idea of fun. But a promise from the group to come back for Lincoln and Cameron finally got us heading back down and out of the wind.  We got in a couple of fun glissades on the way down which kept the downhill rock sliding and hopping to a tolerable amount, always appreciated.  Molly probably climbed the mountain about 3 times over with all the roundtrips she made between couples and exploring smells.  She looked like one tired puppy by the time we made it back to the campsite.  George and I left Nate and Crystal with their tired pooch and beelined it for Coyote Cantina in Buena Vista.

Trip Report for Lincoln/Cameron:

George kept the promise he made to me last week and planned a trip back to the Alma area to get Mts. Lincoln and Cameron.  Crystal must not have minded her first 14ner too much because Nate and she were back for more with Molly.  We found a nice little campsite on Saturday night up from the Quartzville TH that wasn’t on private property.  The evening was pretty breezing causing me to worry that we might be in for a repeat of last week but I was wrong.  Once again we started bright and early to an absolutely beautiful day for climbing.  We drove a little farther up the road to please the women in the group and then followed the mining roads the rest of the way.  I have to celebrate just a tiny bit because it may not happen ever again but I was a fair bit ahead of the rest of the group for most of the hike.  It was a beautiful day and you can’t beat a class 1 trail to hike on.  I got to enjoy another little snow climb with crampons close to the summit.  George humored me and gave me time to get my crampons off and be the first one on the summit since I had led most of the day which I know wasn’t easy for him to do.  We stopped to refuel and take pictures on the summit and then headed over to Cameron.  Everyone was hoping for a glissade or two to cut down on the down climbing so Crystal and I agreed to extend the hike a bit to get to some glissadable snow.  George decided tandem glissades were a better idea after watching my glissade technique last weekend so we glissaded together while being chased by Molly.  We were all very happy to see the Jeep again at the bottom as well as our Chaco sandals and dry pants (the only downside to glissading).  I might actually be starting to enjoy this 14ner climbing thing a little.