14ers.com • Trip Report - Who needs sleep?? Part 2

Peak(s):	Mt. Democrat - 14,148 feet
Date Posted:	06/21/2011
Date Climbed:	06/10/2011
Author:	joelmpaula

Who needs sleep?? Part 2
Trailhead: Kite Lake Party: Joel Paula Elevation Gain of all three peaks: 7,500 feet After I dropped Ben off in Frisco. The next peak on the list was Mt.Democrat. Mt.Democ The drive to kit lake went by pretty fast. I was starting to feel not going to sleep. I parked my car on one of the pull offs that did not say no parking. Two men pulled up in old school jeep. I walked over to talk to the drivers of the jeeps because they looked like they knew what was going on. It turns out that the two men were the care takers of the Kite lake drainage. They told storys of the old mines and people getting lost in the area. After about 30 minutes of talking to the men they left. I made my bed and went to sleep at 8 pm. I had been awake for over 36 hours. I set my alarm for 3:30 am. I started hiking at 4am in trail shoes. There was a few patches of snow about a hundred feet long on the start of the hike up the road. I hit continious snow about a half mile from the lake. At the Kite lake trailhead I put my skis on and began skining around the lake. There were alot of clouds rolling in. I new if the storm actually rolled in I could ski down to my car pretty quickly. I skined to the 12,700 to the summer trail. The summer trail was pretty dry so I put my trailshoes on. In hindsight I should have skined all the way to the summit. I climbed the summer trail intill I hit snow line. I put my ski boots back on and began skining to the summit. I reached the summit at 8:15 am. The snow was bullet proof. I waited on the summit for a 30 minutes. The wind was blowing 30 mph consistent. I should have waited longer to drop in. The snow did not soften up at all on the descent. I skied down the south slope chutes to the lake. At the lake I took some pictures. After a quick stop i skied the snow on the side of the creek all the way back to my car. I was done by 9:10 am. It never hurts to be on the summit to eary rather then to late. However make sure you have warm enough clothes and something to do while you wait for the snow to soften up. Bross S Gully Traver Peak Ski to my car door. I did ski Democrat again this week with my friend Ben on 6/16/2011. I figure I should ski off the summit with a little softer snow. One again I was to early. Ben and I waited on the summit for an hour and a half. We started skiing at 9:30 am. The snow was pretty hard off the summit, However it soften up at the top of the steep terrain. We got back to the car at 10:30 am. What a great season to be able to ski south faces the middle of June. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Who needs sleep?? Part 2

Trailhead: Kite Lake
Party: Joel Paula
Elevation Gain of all three peaks: 7,500 feet

After I dropped Ben off in Frisco. The next peak on the list was
Mt.Democrat.

The drive to kit lake went by pretty fast. I was
starting to feel not going to sleep. I parked my car on one
of the pull offs that did not say no parking. Two men pulled up in old school jeep. I walked
over to talk to the drivers of the jeeps because they looked like they
knew what was going on. It turns out that the two men were the care
takers of the Kite lake drainage. They told storys of the old mines
and people getting lost in the area. After about 30 minutes of talking to the men they
left. I made my bed and went to sleep at 8 pm. I had been awake for over 36
hours. I set my alarm for 3:30 am. I started hiking at 4am in trail
shoes. There was a few patches of snow about a hundred feet long on
the start of the hike up the road. I hit continious snow about a half mile from the lake. At the Kite lake trailhead I put my skis on and began skining around the lake. There were alot of clouds rolling in. I new if the storm actually rolled in I could ski down to my car
pretty quickly.

I skined to the 12,700 to the summer trail. The summer
trail was pretty dry so I put my trailshoes on. In hindsight I
should have skined all the way to the summit. I climbed the summer
trail intill I hit snow line. I put my ski boots back on and began skining to the summit. I reached the summit at 8:15 am. The snow was bullet proof. I waited on the summit for a 30 minutes. The wind was blowing 30 mph consistent. I should have waited longer to drop in. The snow did not soften up at all on the descent. I skied down the south slope chutes to the lake. At the lake I took some pictures. After a quick stop i skied the snow on the side of the creek all the way back to my car. I was done by 9:10 am. It never hurts to be on the
summit to eary rather then to late. However make sure you have warm
enough clothes and something to do while you wait for the snow to
soften up.

I did ski Democrat again this week with my friend Ben on 6/16/2011. I
figure I should ski off the summit with a little softer snow. One
again I was to early. Ben and I waited on the summit for an hour and a
half. We started skiing at 9:30 am. The snow was pretty hard off the
summit, However it soften up at the top of the steep terrain. We got
back to the car at 10:30 am. What a great season to be able to ski south
faces the middle of June.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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