Four Fourteener Day

That's right, four fourteeners in one day. Here are the pictures.

Central Colorado's Mosquito Range contains 5 (four official, one unofficial) of Colorado's 54 14,000 foot mountains: Mt. Democrat, Mt. Cameron, Mt Lincoln, Mt. Bross, and Mt. Sherman. Of these peaks, four are in a group called the Lincoln group about 2 1/2 hours from Colorado Springs. Steve and I decided to knock out the Lincoln group with a traverse to all of the Mosquito 14ers but Mt. Sherman. We camped over night at Kite Lake, which sits between Mt. Democrat, Mt. Cameron, and Mt. Bross.

Mt Democrat - 14,148 feet

The first peak of our traverse through the Mosquito Range was the 14,148 ft Mt. Democrat. We woke up early at 6:00am and hit the trail at 6:15. Mt Democrat is a steep hike above the lake but we didn't let the early steep climb deter us because we knew that it would be our largest of the four climbs we would do that day. Gaining 2800 vertical feet in less than two miles with about half the oxygen you get at sea level hurt, but it was a beautiful day and we weren't about to be stopped. While the sun was still rising and with valleys still full of shade we reached the summit with some great views of many of the surrounding 14ers including Cameron, Lincoln, Bross, Elbert, Massive, Bross, Grays, Torreys, Pikes Peak, Sherman, Quandry, and many in the Sawatch Range that I can't yet recognize.

Steve and I stopped to take pictures once we hit the saddle between Democrat and Cameron. This view is looking north. The ridge on the opposite side of the Valley is the Continental Divide. Beyond this ridge is the Tenmile Range and its only 14er - Quandry Peak. In the far distance the two sharp peaks to the left of Quandry are a pair of front range peaks - Gray's Peak and Torrey's Peak. After a few pictures and a breather we continued west up the ridge to Democrat.

The rocky final ascent to the summit of Mt. Democrat.

Steve and I at th summitt of Mt. Democrat. We were both pretty surprised to not see a Bush Cheney sign at the top - I mean, this is a Republican state you know. And yes, I am wearing sweat pants under my shorts. It was a little cold in the morning and they felt nice. Plus, on my only 14er hike with Kelly she wore sweatpants all the way to the top and I missed her! The Sawatch range, which has some of the highest Colorado peaks, is in the background. We stayed on the summit for a few minutes but wanted to hurry to the next before the clouds moved in.

Mt. Cameron - 14,238 ft

Now, 14er purists discredit Cameron as an official 14er because it is so close to the higher Mt. Lincoln, however, I don't think this peak should be overshadowed. It has its own character which is much different than that of Mt. Lincoln and I found separate things to appreciate about each peak. Thus, it is Colorado's 17th highest peak but is not an offical 14er.

After a tough climb up Democrat we were dissapointed to have to descend back under the 14,000 ft line to climb the next peak. With the sun out, the steep ascent up Cameron was a little more uncomfortable than the climb up Democrat. But we made it! In the next picture Steve and I held out two fingers on Mt Cameron for the second ascent of our day.

Mt. Cameron - two down, two to go. Behind us is the summit at Mt Lincoln. It's close proximity disqualifies Cameron as a 14er to the 14er afficianado, but I'm still proud to have climbed the 17th highest peak in Colorado. After a brief stop at the top we moved on to the highest peak in the Mosquito Range, Mt. Lincoln.

Mt. Lincoln - 14, 286 - Colorado's 8th highest peak

We descended Mt. Cameron but quickly got to start back up Mt. Lincoln. This peak has a much more distinctive summit than Cameron and Bross which made the climb more dramatic but also made the summit more crowded. It wasn't a lot of extra effort after climbing Mt. Cameron, but it was great to look down on the rest of the Tenmile Range.

Steve and I top Mt Lincoln - That's three for the day! Quandry is right behind the continental divide on the right side of the picture. Now its time to go down and back up. Clouds were starting to move in and we didn't want to stay too see the lightning.

Mt. Bross - 14,172 Colorado's 22nd heighest peak.

The description in the holy book of 14er climbing, Gerry Roaches "14ers," describes Mt. Bross as a mountain that challenges photographers to make it look dramatic. Well, it isn't an exciting summit but I didn't think this was a bad picture! As you can see, we had some dark clouds building, just as they do every afternoon in Colorado. To follow the unwritten 14er rule, which is to be off the summits by noon to avoid lightning strikes, we were going to have to hurry!

After four 14ers in 6 hours we busted out the cigars! Of course, I only had a couple puffs because I wasn't about to make it any harder for me to breathe after being above 13,000 feet all morning. I still haven't gotten used to the altitude headaches and the brain swelling that makes your pulse shake your head, but I did feel a lot better today than I did ten weeks ago on Pikes Peak. It was all down from here, but that wasn't going to be as easy as it sounded.

As we went down the southwest slope of Bross to finish our loop we saw a very steep slope of rock and dirt with a straight trail down. Taking steps was not an option. I remembered the first time I went downhill skiing that the way you slow yourself down is to point your toes together and crouch and just let me mountain take you. We sped down the mountain skiing on our shoes and did much better than a high school ahead of us. He was hiking with a girl and showing off. What do you know - at the bottom of the slope he couldn't slow himself down and crashed hard into the rocky slope. He was okay so we kept going. Lightning was already striking the summits we'd been at a few hours before.

We got back to the car just as the hail hit. Lightning was pretty close by this point so we were glad to make it back by then. Great Hike - hope you liked the pictures.