After my unfortunately snow free trip to Pikes Peak, I headed off to Mt. Democrat to find some spring snow to ascend. I parked my car just above Montgomery Reservoir at the Magnolia Mill. I hiked up the 4x4 road to snow line at about 11,600' and setup camp for the night. This was a drought year, and the snowcover was very thin for this time of year.

That morning, I set off over the crusty, consolidated snow in the bottom of platte gulch. At 12,100' there was an old mining cabin on the west side of the creek. Since I was getting pretty warm, and it was still early, I decided to stash my jacket and vest in the cabin, and pick it up on the descent. I put them under a large rock near the cabin door and headed off.

My destination was the North Face route Roach describes in his guidebook. I had planned to summit all four fourteeners in the Lincoln Group. I continued on snowshoes until the snow became too steep to climb, as my crampons could not get much of a grip on the steep slope. I was surprised to see the snow in the coulior was not consolidated, although a quick snowpit revealed little layering. I proceeded to easily kick steps in the snow up the coulior. From the bottom, I could see a rock stick in the snow in the center of the coulior. As I approached it,, I was amazed to find this was not a rock, but a large boulder. I began to question how safe it was to soloing this route without a helmet.

The ascent seemed to go slowly, but the vertical feet ticked by very quickly. The exit to the coulior was a bit dicy, as it had melted out considerably. Once I had gained the ridgeline, it was not too far along the ridge to the summit, and a faint trail could be seen periodically. When I reached the summit, it had cooled off dramatically, and I sat for about ten minutes wearing everything I had brought, and then had to move on to stay warm.