4) 14,148 ft Mt Democrat 3-9-07

I wanted to go do Elbert today, but a later than anticipated start had me out the door at 5am wondering where to go. The shortest access and possibly sweetest line I could think of to do solo had to be Mt Democrat and the Kite Lake TH.

Sunrise was pretty cool:


Looks farther away than it is:




I must come back to ski this huge flute some day:


Getting closer:


The scree field to the false summit:


Looking west toward the far side of the bowl that I wanted to ski(if I had a partner today):


Finally above the false summit and just one more quick snowfield to the top:


This couloir looks doable...... Maybe:


I like:

On the summit(isnt my hair sexy...):




Some guy named Vlad on the summit right after I skied down:


Crazy powderfield to doglegged couloir hell yeah. You better believe Ill be back for this one in the not so distant future:




Sadly enough, after the summit field, these were the two snowfields I skiied before the mellow return to Kite Lake. One down the ridge, and one straight to the camera, sigh:


Vlad with the crazy extreme snowshoe straightline:
All in all it was a great day. I wish my usual partner hadn't crapped out on me so we could have skied something a little more fun, but once home safe after a nice solo 14er summit, theres nothing really to complain about. Not sure where Im going tommorow, if the weather holds off the mountain of choice might be Mt Elbert, the tallest mountain in all of the rockies. Hopefully there will be more updates soon...