Mt. Shavano – East Slopes – Solo Ascent
Date: July 12, 2003
Elevation: 14,229′
Rank: 17th
Route: East Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 11.7 miles, 5410ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 37.133′ W 106° 14.333′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid)
Pre-climb: It has been a while since I soloed a peak, so I thought it would be good for me to get out to the mountains. Almost unprecedented, I had these two climbs picked out almost an entire day ahead of time. This gave me time to research beta and read recent trip reports concerning conditions. It appeared to me that while people still use Jennings Creek it is highly frowed upon do to environmental concerns. Thus, I chose to do the longer route which is becoming the standard route from Blank Gulch Trailhead.
Climb: I felt like I was in college again. As soon as I laid down my head to sleep, I hear this repeating sound that echoed in such a way I think my brain now twitches as the mere sound of that horrid noise. I think it’s a conspiracy with the alarm clock manufacturers to etch the sound into your brain neurons so that they can control you sub-consciously. But I digress. I woke up at 1:30am. I was on the road by 2am.
Mt. Shavano and Tabeguache Peak are two mountains that form the southern boundry of the Sawatch and they are probably the most difficult of the group to pronounce. I think everybody along the hike said these two names differently. That didn’t matter, it gave me something to think about as I was driving in the middle of the night. There were about four campsites setup at the trailhead, and they were stirring as I pulled in around 5:30am.
This trail is pretty steep. It wastes no time taking you from the 9,700ft start to around 11,000ft. However, after backpacking the previous weekend I was in good shape because at least now I didn’t have a 60lb pack on my back. In fact, I was making really good time, and made it to treeline a little after one hour. The temperature was already climbing, and as I reached into my pack I realized something. Where the heck are my sunglasses!?!? Doh! They are back in my Blazer! There was no way I was going to hike all that way just to get my sunglasses, but I knew that I would really miss them. Oh well, that’s what I get for not double checking everything before I hit the trail.
Then, moments later, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me due to the excess sunlight exposure, and I saw about 20 bighorn sheep eating and pooping on the trail. In fact, I didn’t think they were really there until I got closer and still saw them. Then, instead of taking off as I approached, these sheep started walking towards ME!? What on earth!? Do people feed these things or something? It looked like it wanted to use its horns and plow into me, in an attempt to seperate me from my backpack so it could feast on candy bars, trail mix and water. I wasn’t about to have any! So like in the movie Parent Trap, I began to hit my two sticks together (trekking poles) to scare off big animals. It seemed to work amusingly well. I snapped a few pictures and continued on up to the saddle.
After that little encounter, I reached the saddle after 2 hours and 15 minutes. From here you can see a false summit that is really close to the actual summit of Shavano. However, the trail turns to Class 2 at this point, which means talus and/or rock hopping. No big deal, but this last little bit took me 45 minutes and I was standing on the summit at what seemed like to me a new personal record — 8:45 in the morning. What on earth to do?! Oh yeah, hike on over to Tabeguache before the afternoon storms roll in. (which btw, isolated thunderstorms were predicted) And being on a ridge that takes an hour to traverse, that’s not a place I wanted to be in a thunderstorm.
The traverse over is really simple. I guess you can make it more complicated if you try and “save time” by cutting across the sides of Shavano, but that IMHO is a poor decision. It’s so much easier to just follow the ridge proper. Once you hike down into the saddle between Shavano and Tabeguache, it’s a quick talus climb to the top of Tab. The trail is faint, but it’s more on the Southeast side rather than the Northeast side. I didn’t see it going up, but I found it for the return trip back down. From the top of Tabeguache, you have a pretty good view of the Antero Road. I would say you have a good view of Antero, but the road seriously distracted me. It’s that visable. Oh well.
Honestly, the thought of me having to climb Shavano again was disheartening. I didn’t want to do it, but it really wasn’t as bad as I thought. I made it back with another hour of hiking at a moderate pace and just continued right on over and down to the saddle before I finally took a break. What on earth are people doing still coming up the mountain in the afternoon!? Don’t they see the giant storm cloud? I guess I’d rather not know the answer to that. It might affect my view on the integrity of the population.
The descent is steep because well, the ascent was steep. My feet were on fire coming down the mountain, however I was satisfied knowing that I came out and accomplished what I set out to do. Tabeguache is I guess a relatively hard peak to get if your doing the 14ers for the Grand Slam. Most people I saw said they were attempting the traverse for the second or third time. I guess I was lucky for getting it on my first try. Then again, I guess if one just sucks it up and succombs to the sound of their alarm clock at 2 in the morning after going to bed at midnight, you have enough time to achieve your adventures.
Drive: 3.5h
Ascent: 3h
Summit: 30 min
Traverse: 1h
Summit: 30 min
Descent: 2.75h
Drive: 4h
Total: 8.75h
