Mount Shavano - 14229' - Class 2
Tabeguache Peak - 14155' - Class 2
June 2011
I did these two 14ers by myself the day after Blanca and Ellingwood Point. It was well after midnight by the time I got my car all the way up to the Angel of Shavano Trailhead. After a few hours of sleep, I got up an hour before sunrise and quickly started up the trail just after a couple other people which I soon caught up with and passed. I was initially going to climb the Angel was was in perfect condition but I didn't leave the trail in the correct spot and before I knew it I was already at treeline. There was still lots of hard snow covering the trail however around treeline but I managed to make my way across it. Once I got above the trees, I just followed the standard trail which was clear of snow at this point. As I rounded the rib the Angel came into perfect view well below me and I even saw a few people climbing it. One person was a couple hundred feel below me and I raced myself to beat him to the summit. He was slightly below me but I had much more distance to cover. By the time I reached the edge of the Angel snowfield, I was about 50 feet below him and the final 600 feet of talus to the summit of Shavano went smoothly to where I met up with a group of three who also had just arrived at the summit. They were just above me on the final push to the top. Since we all wanted to also tag Tabeguache, we agreed to do the traverse together. It was the four of us and we made the traverse in about a half hour. Tabeguache had a better summit in my opinion and had a more remote feel to it. Unfortunately there was a bunch of smoke coming from the southwest so we didn't have clear views but it was pretty anyways. After we all got our photos, one of the guys went on to climb Jones Peak while the other two and I went back over Shavano and descended to the top of the Angel. We all prepared to glissade and I led the charge down plowing the path in the now softened snow. 800 feet lower I ran out of snow and stopped only to see the other two coming fast down the slope in my perfect pathway. They actually had to arrest but I just slowly slid to a stop. They led the way through the trees back to the trail (where I failed to go earlier) and we hiked the res of the way out together and exchanged information at the cars. They were nice to meet and climb with.
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