Mount Cameron

Mount Cameron (as seen from the valley east of Kite Lake),

at 14,238 feet in elevation, is taller than nearby Mount Democrat (14,148 feet),

1.25 miles away. The picture above was taken from Mount Lincoln. Cameron is the rounded peak in the center and Democrat is the pointed peak just to its right. Mount Cameron is also taller than Mount Bross (14,172 feet), 1.01 miles away, but despite being taller than two nearby fourteeners is not considered one of the 53 fourteeners in Colorado. Why? Because nearby Mount Lincoln (14,286 feet), .5 miles away, is a little taller and in the convention used to determine a separate fourteener, usually requiring 300 feet in elevation difference between mountains, including dips into the saddle, it doesn't qualify. Below, see Andrew and Sam on the summit of Cameron and Mount Lincoln, the pointed peak, in the background.

In terms of sex appeal, it has little. It is quite ugly as far as mountains go. It has a rounded, bald nob, and sits between two much sexier mountains, Mount Democrat and Mount Lincoln, both having more pointed peaks and cliffs that make them more ominous and dangerous looking.

I previously posted our hike up Mount Democrat. From the Democrat/Cameron saddle, where Sam is below,

we hiked up the ridge

in a pretty straightforward climb

to the summit. The ridge of Cameron is seen below from Mount Democrat.

We may have actually missed the exact summit. The summit area was quite large and quite flat and we didn't look for a summit marker. We were focused on the much more impresseive Mount Lincoln. Below, also seen from Mount Democrat, is Mount Cameron in the center and the peak of Mount Lincoln a little behind it to the left.

If we did miss the summit of Cameron, it was by only an unexciting foot or two. However, Cameron is only ugly by comparison. If it was on its own, away from the other beauties, it would really be a great hike. As indicated in the Mount Democrat post, we did not climb Mount Bross because it was closed by the landowners. We considered it, knew others were doing it, but decided not to. We did, however, take the route along the side of Mount Bross on the way back down, providing a circular route as opposed to retracing our old steps. So, after hiking to the summit of Mount Lincoln, subject of an upcoming post, we took a trail along the side of Mount Cameron,

to the Cameron/Bross saddle, then along the side of Mount Bross

and

and

and looked back for views of Mount Cameron and the Cameron/Bross saddle.

and switchbacked our way down into the valley

again through a scree pile

that had some awful sections.

The views from the side of Mount Bross were some of the nicest of the day, partly because Democrat, on the other side of the valley, was nicer to look at than Bross, which is about as sexy as Cameron. However, where Democrat was a large rockpile, and mostly solid footholds, Bross was a large screepile, and provided some tenuous footholds, particularly through one notoriously thrilling section. This was where the scree was mostly non-existent and the bare ground provided little traction. We went very slowly and carefully. As it was, Andrew landed on his back twice, and I nearly joined him several times. It was reminiscent of the descent from Sneffles last year down another no-fun screepile. As we got back down to where large rocks began and plants were growing, we had fun listening to and looking for pikas which were all over. Then we stopped briefly at a small waterfall,

a nice touch after a mostly waterless day. Although we only covered about 7 miles during the day, it took as 7 hours to do so. We arrived back at the car about 4:20 p.m. after our late 9:20 a.m. start. The three or four peak package provides a very nice day. It offers variety, a mostly one-way trip, multiple and different peaks and differing views. All-in-all, one of the better days I've spent with my boys. Much of the day they let me lead, allowing me to go at my slower pace. They could have smoked me at any time if they'd wanted to, left me in a pile of dust. I mostly listened as they chatted back and forth defining esoteric words, then asking for and providing words with similar meanings. I didn't understand much of what they said, most of it was over my head. But it was fun to listen in, to learn about what they are learning, what they are interested in, to know that they have both been getting great educations.