Following the previous nights festivities, the next morning we started out on a nice little warm up hike. We hike a nice little trail that wound its way through the foothills of the Ten Mile – Mosquito range. The weather was great and everyone was feeling well as we hiked about one and a half miles to tree line. We then turned back and decided to have some dinner and turn in a little early so to be well rested for the Democrat accent. At about 7:00pm, just as everyone was preparing for sleep. The youngest member of our little clan was complaining of a severe headache and nausea. The Altitude had claimed yet another.

Steve and Wendy decided it they needed to get Cody to a lower altitude so they left camp with Doreen and Harry and spent the night in Buena Vista. Our climbing crew had been reduced to 4 in a matter of minutes. We had a long discussion that night about weather we should climb in the morning or wait till the following day. We wanted to summit with Steve and Wendy but without knowing Cody’s condition and whether or not they would even attempt a climb the following day, we decided to give it a go in the morning!

We arrived at the Kite Lake Trail Head at Approx. 8:00am. The Air was crisp and there was not a cloud in the sky. We took the standard route up Democrat. The class 2 trail winds its way from Kite Lake to the Democrat – Cameron Saddle passing and old mining building and crossing a small stream. The trail from the stream crossing steppens slightly, but nothing to terribly difficult. Once we reached the saddle, we were immediately greeted a strong, bone chilling wind. From the Saddle you have two options, follow the ridgeline to the summit, which is not yet visible or ver off to the left and follow the well worn climbers trail to the false summit. Wanting to avoid as much of the wind as possible we decided to head towards the false summit. This route is a little longer but the wind and exposure are minimal.

From this point it took about 30 minutes to reach the false summit. As I was waiting for Darren, Colby and Kristen, I spoke with a man and his son as they were on their way down. From where I stood, the summit looked as if it was about an hour hike. The man told me “It’s about a 10 minutes…… not nearly as far as it looks”. After Darren and Colby came into view I headed for the summit. From the false Summit you head through a easy, level trail across a large snow field and than its just a short accent to the summit. 10 minutes on the nose! I waited on the summit for the rest of the crew. Once they arrived we shot some video, snapped a few pictures and celebrated a successful summit. Unfortunalty we didn’t have much time to rest. Storm clouds were building rapidly. About 15 minutes into our decent we heard the clash of thunder. We stopped and reviewed our options. We were looking forward to a nice slow decent, but with the speed of the oncoming storm we decided to jump trail and head straight down the Talas field. Which wound up saving us about 45 minutes and possibly a lightning strike. Kysten had a close call, about 100 yards from the car she told Colby that she felt a little funny, Colby turned around to answer her and noticed that her hair was standing on end. We made it back to the car about 5 minutes after the storm caught up with us. Luckly for us we got off the mountain just in time. The was the first summit for Darren, Krysten and Myself. It was Colby's second.

Once, in the car we drove to Fairplay and had lunch at the Brown Buro, then meet up with the rest of the group in Buena Vista. The following day Steve and Wendy drove up to Kite Lake, but were unable to make an attempt due to early morning storms.

Side Note:

A very strange thing happened shortly after reaching the false summit. I was waiting on the others to come into sight, when a beautiful woman came around the corner. She sat down and talked with me briefly, then ten minutes later I saw here on the summit. About 5 minutes after that Darren and Colby came into sight and I headed for the summit. While crossing the snowfield I noticed that the woman was gone. She had come from the main trail, the same trail Darren and Colby were on. From the vantage point I had their was only one way down that I could not see and that would have been a Class 4 decent with about a 30 mile hike. Once I reached the summit I looked around all possible exit points and trails but saw no sign of her, nor did she sign the summit log.

Later that afternoon I asked Darren if she had passed them on the way up, and he said he didn’t know what I was talking about. To this day Darren still say’s I’m crazy and calls it a "altitude mirage"…….

-Scott Parry