Helen and I camped near the Mount Shavano Trailhead on Friday night and woke up at dawn on Saturday morning. We started hiking by 6:15a and quickly reached the Colorado Trail, which we’d follow for a short distance.
Soon we came to a junction and turned left up the Shavano Trail which rose steeply through the forest. Before the first long switchback we left the trail and skirted across a talus field of loose rocks while Helen fittingly described the novel she was reading to me, “The Angle of Repose”. After meandering in a roughly uphill direction through the remains of the forest we broke out at tree line and laid eyes on the beginning of the snow feature called the Angel of Shavano. The body was disconnected from the arm we’d ascend and the other arm was completely melted out.
Taking a break at the base of the snow we strapped on our crampons and got out the ice axes and then started up, following some previous glissade tracks of climbers who’d descended this route.
Torrey loved climbing on the snow and would run back and forth between Helen and I, glissading and re-climbing the slope to check on the both of us. Toward the middle of the snowfield we passed near the regular trail and felt like objects of attention or amusement for all the regular hikers.
Once we reached the top of the snowfield we joined the regular trail and looked ahead at the last remaining bit of climbing to reach Shavano’s summit.
We took a short break on the summit and judged the weather plenty stable to traverse over to the neighboring 14er, Tabeguache Peak.
There wasn’t much of a defined trail toward Tabeguache, instead we hopped from boulder to boulder and descended toward the saddle between the two peaks.
We trudged through a short and soft snow patch and then climbed over loose rocks to reach Tabeguache’s summit.
We seemed to be the first people to reach Tabeguache’s summit this morning and enjoyed having the space to ourselves and admired the view of Antero to the north.
The “best” route back was to retrace our steps, so we headed down and then re-ascended Shavano.
We stopped along the way and chatted with numerous other hikers and took pictures of all the wildflowers.
Since our route had over 5,000 feet of gain, I felt it was appropriate to wear my “Lord of Pain” shirt (a gift from the Bloomington Hiking Club).
From Shavano’s summit we followed the regular trail down and then diverged to join the middle of the Angel snowfield. A combination of boot and butt glissading quickly brought us to the end of the snow.
We pushed on through the woods and soon reconnected with the regular trail. A delightful stream ran alongside one portion of the trail.
Before long we were back on the Colorado Trail and then nearing the trailhead. Beer and pizza in Salida would top off our hike. Torrey did great for her first two 14ers, but enjoyed sleeping all afternoon.
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The Journey Is Home 