My friends and I climbed Democrat's North Ridge on Sunday. It is an absolutely fantastic climb. The snowshoe in is manageable on the approach, and we only sank through the willows a few times. From here our primary concern had been the slope to access the North Ridge. However, it had been fairly cold on Saturday night allowing for a stable snowpack. We did have one crack in the snow by a rock outcropping, but we saw no avalanche activity all day. The ridge itself was awesome. There was waist deep snow in places even on the ridge. This made for a tough but fun day. As far as the climbing we took a half rope, a set of nuts, and a few cams. With all of the snow we had to be careful about our route, and because of this we had 2 roped pitches, and 1 rappel. We summited at 3:30 and then used the couloir off of the Democrat/Cameron saddle to descend. Winds were light most of the day, but picked up on the way out. Also, the rock is very solid for most of the climb and allows for some fun axe work. All in all I give this route an A.
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