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Date - June 9, 2012
Distance - 11.25 miles
Elevation Gain - 5,600 ft
Mount Harvard & Mount Columbia:
Date - June 10, 2012
Distance - 15 miles
Elevation Gain - 6,100 ft
I'm writing this now because I may sleep all day tomorrow. I saw that the weather forecast looked solid and made a weekend out of it. Technically a solo mission, but I met a lot of great people (wish I could remember names)....
I realized this weekend that one year ago tommorrow I climbed Bierstadt, my 1st 14er, and finishing the day off today with Columbia marked completing exactly half of CO's 14ers. (I blame some of the insane people i climb these peaks with for that ridiculous stat). Still a newbie to all of this in my mind...
This report is more about the pictures to give you an idea about the trail conditions than anything else.
Shavano & Tabeguache:
Off to a later than anticiapted start on Saturday. The plan - Shavano from the standard east route with the traverse over to Tabeguache. A lot of people will tell you it was pretty windy this weekend in the Sawatch. These people weren't in the San Juans over Memorial Day weekend. It will never be windy again. Also, there was no snow to be found anywhere on this Shavano/Tab route.
Shavano TH The trees have been cleared by the forest service, but you can get a good sense of what it must have looked like. looking back after leaving treeline view of Shavano from the saddle, very windy up here, but not so much on the summits Summit of Mount Shavano - June 9, 2012 Summit of Mount Shavano - June 9, 2012 a look at the traverse over to Tab, again no snow, and if you were looking for a weather window, you had all day. I finally met Noel. Thanks for the cookie! Noel and Mandy got an early start and we passed on the traverse. This is Casey and Rigby approaching the summit of Tab. I lied - there was 8 sq feet of snow on this route. Summit of Tabeguache Peak - June 9, 2012 pure evil
condo camping in Frisco - thanks Snee
Harvard & Columbia:
After a good nights sleep I got back in the jeep at about 4 AM and headed back to BV. The plan... Harvard from the standard route with the traverse over to Columbia and down the SW slope. Still a little windy, but the weather was great.
N. Cottonwood Creek TH - early start my kind of sign someone should send the Forest service to Harvard. Its a mess below treeline, lots of side trails to get around the trees. I put this up because there is no sign here. I went straight, right will take you to the trail that comes down off Columbia. at this point you get a solid idea of how huge the Harvard/Columbia traverse really is the trail winds through the valley until you get to the rock cropping below Harvard. Summit of Mount Harvard - June 10, 2012 Summit of Mount Harvard - June 10, 2012 a look at the traverse to Columbia, there are still some snow fields on the far side when you drop down. Brian? (I'm sorry man, I just can't remember your name, It was great hiking up the summit of Harvard with you) takes the last snowfield before the saddle below Columbia the final scramble to the summit (you can see 2 hikers off to the right) Summit of Mount Columbia - June 10, 2012 summit shot - (sorry guys, need help on the names again) - thanks for leading the way off the summit to scree hell, much appr tread lightly went out the window pretty fast on this trek down, sorry forest. This scree decent is something pretty bad, but good night
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Nice TR! We met on Harvard, I took that picture of you on the rock.
We saw you ascending Columbia but you were gone by the time we got up. Hope the wind didn't get you too bad, agreed that it wasn't worse than memorial weekend (I was on Decalibron and Sherman that weekend)
Congrats on the 1/2 way point. I'm shy at 13. It's possibly we'll meet again.
it was quite a haul, but a lot of fun at the same time. trav - i like it too dan! glad i could make a contribution to the demise of the english language. bill, i hadn't shaved since pre-Wilsons, i was itchy. fireonthemountain - yep, especially in a wrangler, solo! colby - thanks for commenting - good to meet you man. Thanks for the picture and congrats on a big weekend as well. noel - in the real world you run into people on the street, in CO you pass on the summit of a 14K mtn...
PS - we all know the only beast among us in these comments is Jansen. Hopefully see you all soon.
i'd like to do both Shav and Tab within the next couple weeks. If i were to do both in 1 say what would be the best route? fastest as well? i have a 6 month old pup that i dont want to take a 8 hour hike. Not until she grows up a little more! Any advice?
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