So the morning of Jan 26, I headed out of Denver around 5am, planning on getting to the trailhead (or as close as I could get to it) by 7:30~8:00 so the day would have had a little time to warm up. From Denver, the quickest route to the Kite Lake trailhead (which is the standard route for Democrat), is to drive SW on US 285 through Bailey, over Kenosha Pass to Fairplay (which is a good pit-stop, as it's the last bastion of real civilization along the way). From Fairplay, head west on CO9 to Alma...about 6 miles up the road. Be sure to pay very close attention to speed limits in both Fairplay and Alma...local law enforcement is pretty rabid about speeders! About a half-mile or so into Alma, look sharp for the left turn (west) marked Buckskin Road / Kite Lake. It's a fairly well-maintained dirt road (all but low-slung cars/trucks can make it) from CO 9 to the terminus at Kite Lake, just about 6 miles distant...and Kite Lake is a designated fee area....$3 to park, $7 to camp.

Of course, it being the middle of winter, the road isn't exactly plowed all that way, and in fact became impassible about 2 miles from Kite Lake, right at a small mining complex. The complex is peppered with "NO PARKING" signs, and for some reason, a lone Park County sheriff's SUV was parked up there, with a young deputy just hanging out. I spoke to him briefly, and he said there were complaints about hikers parking at the mine (presumably form the mine owners), and he was there to keep an eye on things. What a gig...sit at the end of a snowy road and warn off people. Luckily, there is a large turn-out off the road a couple hundred yards below the mine, so it wasn't a problem to park there to start the day.

So about 8:00 or so I got parked and started gearing up for the day. It was clear and bright...and very, very windy, even down in the valley where I was! The temperature itself was in the low 20's, but the windchill was easily below zero, and plumes of snow reached horizontally from the surrounding peaks and ridges, indicating even stronger wind at altitude. I layered up and strapped my ice axe and snowshoes to my pack. Stepped off up the road at 8:15, with Democrat itself almost directly in front of me. The 2 miles to Kite Lake was a piece of cake on foot. The road was alternately blown free of snow or covered in deep drifts, but there was a hard enough crust that walking generally wasn't a problem (driving, however, would have been impossible). It took about an hour and a half to get to the Kite Lake area, all the while the winds getting stiffer as the day wore one.

From Kite Lake you can see the entire amphitheatre that encompasses Mts. Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross...an impressive sight at any time of year! The main route for Democrat (and Cameron, Lincoln) goes off to the right of Kite Lake, along a small rise to the end of the basin, and then up to a saddle point between Democrat and Cameron. Again, most of this section was either blown free of serious snow, or hard enough to walk on sans snowshoes. Only at the end of basin (after passing the old mining ruins to the left) did the terrain become steep enough and the snow consistently deep enough to warrant snowshoes. It took about an hour from Kite Lake to the aforementioned saddle point. As I poked my head over the saddle, I was quite literally ripped off my feet by a hurricane-gust of wind...luckily, I fell backwards onto the snowfield, just slightly dazed.

From the saddle, the rest of the trail to Democrat is easy to spot...a winding, switchbacking path to the west (climber's left). Looking up, I could see vicious winds blowing snow horizontally off the ridgeline and the false summit above me. The trail itself was mostly clear of snow, and I figured that anything left would be hard as rock anyways, with this wind. I cinched down my hood, cached the snowshoes at the saddle (I actually had to put a rock on them so they wouldn't blow away) and begin the trek upwards. Far from the summertime stroll I remembered from 6 years previous, it was a tough grunt to that false summit. The trail was in good enough shape, but the continuous blasts of wind and swirling snow-devils hampered progress and several times I had to stop and brace with my trekking poles to keep my feet.

Finally, after about an hour, I crested the false summit of Democrat. The true summit lies a few hundred yards to the west, and only took a few minutes to get to. From the summit there was a fantastic 360-degree view! To the west, Fremont Pass and the Climax mining operations, with Leadville and the bulk of Mount Massive and Elbert and the rest of the Sawatch. To the north, the near neighbor of Quandary. To the east and south, the rest of the Mosquito range, including Lincoln, Bross and Mt. Sherman in the distance.

I took a few minutes and attempted some pictures, most of which were pretty fuzzy with the wind buffeting me every which way. Plus, I couldn't remove my gloves due to the windchill, so I got about once decent shot for every 10 taken. After filling the memory card on my Canon, I descended a few feet and found a little shelter under the summit - enough to switch out my poles for my ice axe and grab a completely frozen Clif Bar. Looking at my watch, it was 11:45, making for 3.5 hours from my parking spot....not too bad, all things considered! I took a few bites of the Clif Bar (until my jaw ached too much to keep trying), and set off on the return trip.

Heading down the trail was just as much of an adventure as heading up was, and it took a lot of concentration to keep my feet through the wind and driving windblown snow. Luckily the day stayed clear and bright, so storms weren't a worry. I paused back at the saddle long enough to secure my snowshoes and try a few more jaw-numbing bites of my Clif Bar, and then it was back down the basin to Kite Lake and down the road.

I made it back to my parking area about 2:00, making it a 2-hour descent, always with the winds blowing through the valley. I felt tired but wonderful - not just to have made the summit, but to have been in the mountains on this day. Some days you just 'click' with yourself and your life, and you know that you're where you want to be, doing what you want to do. I've said it before...being in the mountains makes me feel...well, it's the kind of transcendental feeling that really can't be put into words, at least not by me. But I suspect that for those of you who get the same feeling, you know exactly what I mean.

And after a few minutes of being at peace and being one with the world, I packed my gear and headed home, smiling a big, serene smile and blaring Aerosmith out my stereo. Hopefully this is a harbinger of a good year to come!