Mt. Shavano - 14,229 ft


Date: 6-10-2004

Climbers: George Barnes and Jessica Klement

Route:  East slopes via Blank Gulch Trailhead, Class 2

RT distance:  9.7 miles

RT time: 6 hours 15 minutes

Time to summit:  3 hours 50 minutes

Time on summit:  15 minutes

Time to trailhead: 2 hours 10 minutes

Elevation gain:  4,430 feet

Coordinates of TH:  N 38º35.908'    W106º11.812'

Coordinates of summit:  N 38º37.147'    W106º14.356'

 

Trip Report:

 

Pre-climb:

    At 9:45 the night before the climb I gave Jessica a call and we decided to do Shavano, and to meet in Conifer at 5 AM.  Nothing like last minute packing! 

 

Climb:

    From 285 South the route looked to be snow free.  The Angel of Shavano was looking pretty disfigured, more like the Slug of Shavano.

 

    We got to the trail head at about 7:15 AM and were quickly on our way.  I was a little surprised to see open range cattle crossings on the way to the TH, and we quickly found out why.  Before Kenya (Jessica's border collie) could be leashed, she showed us her animal herding instincts and rounded up some startled cattle.  Not wanting to initiate a stampede, Kenya was quickly leashed and stayed that way for most of the climb.

 

Shavano from the TH

 

    The trail is all pretty straight forward.  Part of the trail follows the Colorado Trail, and we saw incredible numbers of backpackers.  There were three or four groups for a total of around 40 backpackers.

 

    Shortly before we broke tree line I saw a hiker wearing what could become the future of mountaineering footwear - Chuck Taylor's Converse All-Stars (get yours here!).  I've emailed Converse to see if these will be available in Gore-Tex and step in crampon compatible - I'll keep you posted.  To his credit, he did have the high top version of the shoes.

 

The Slug of Shavano!

 

    Jessica and I made pretty good time and soon reached the saddle.  We were both relieved to see clear western skies as we headed for the summit.  We reached the summit at 11:05 and were greeted by a few of the climbers from a large group out of Kansas.

 

At the saddle.

 

    We returned to the saddle and made our way to the top of the Angel (Slug?) of Shavano.  We got out our ice axes and geared up for a glissade down the couloir.  The snow was a little wet and sticky for a fast glissade, but it was definitely faster than hoofing it down the trail.

 

 

    The hike out of the drainage was pretty easy and we were soon back to the car and on our way to Johnson's Village for some tasty Mexican food.  All in all a great day!