My buddy Matt and I attempted Shav/Tab on Friday, 2/22, from a high camp in the Angel of Shavano basin. We got to the Shav/Tab TH about 1130 am on Thursday, the 21st. According to the register, someone had been there on the 17th, so there was a faint boot path to follow, making route finding very straight forward. Until... we got to the area where you leave the standard trail and head west towards the Angel of Shavano basin. What followed was quite possibly the most miserable, arduous trailbreaking I have ever experienced in the mountains. We consistently wallowed in knee to thigh-deep powder through the trees for 2+ hours, while wearing snowshoes and carrying 35 pound packs. to say it sucked would be a HUGE understatement. In addition, as we got closer to the basin, we started noticing a lot of whumps and cracking from the snow pack, and this was on fairly moderate terrain. As we got to the basin itself, we saw signs of natural avy releases on both the north AND south aspects of the basin. The Angel herself looked pretty loaded as well.
With the CAIC calling for considerable danger on all of the aspects we could have climbed, and for being absolutely smoked from the previous days shenanigans, we bailed after only making it to ~12,000ft. I think we made the right call too, because the mountain was totally socked in as we left, and when we checked the CAIC website on the drive out, all of the Sawatch avy danger had been upped to high. Anyone interested in climbing Shavano in the near future should stick to the East Ridge, but be careful right near and above treeline. Feel free to shoot me a PM with any questions. PEACE.
pic #1- On the road to the TH
pic #2- Deep into the suck locker
pic #3- The Angel's there somewhere
pic #4- After the beatdown.
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