Mt. Shavano Trip Report 07/14/2015

Peak(s):	Mt. Shavano - 14,230 feet
Date Posted:	07/14/2015
Date Climbed:	07/11/2015
Author:	grunty

The Tired Angel of Shavano
Hi everyone, this will be my first report. I realize I don't have enough pictures on this one already! But the time was good, so I wanted to share it here. My parents have a place up in Fairplay, and my lady and I decided to leave for it on Friday. If anyone has not had the pleasure of having tamales at the Fairplay bowling alley, South Park Bowl Bar and Grill, well as far as I'm concerned, you are doing yourself a disservice. I consider myself a person who likes to eat food, and for bowling alley food, well, it is VERY EDIBLE. I'd like to try their breakfast, which is served all day. Maybe I'm trash, but I'm looking forward to some bacon and eggs and a frame or two. The service is nice. You might say, 'Hey, Scott (my name is not Grunty), was the bowling good?' Well, I don't know yet, we just wanted to eat and I had been wanting to try the food, so FUNK YOU if you want to know about the bowling. Maybe I'll tell you later, in a trip report? Decided on an 8:00 bedtime for a 3:00 morning call. Got to the Shavano trailhead at Blank's Cabin at 5:30, and after a problem at the restroom (bring your own toilet paper), we were on the up at 6:00. A picture from google, of what the Angel of Shavano should look like: The intended Angel of Shavano Here's what it looked like on thaaat day: The lately current, tired angel What I imagine (this was my first Shavano trip, and 3rd 14er so far) is that conditions were similar to many a summer morning. Not a lick of snow on the way up. The Angel started at an elevation of 12,184', and maxed out at 13,198', with about maybe a 30 foot break in her right arm, if she is a she, and she is looking up at the sky. Picture of that here? A dirty angel up kiiiiinda close Stashed my splitboard there, with my boots still in their ski-style bindings. From other reports I had read on this, I was somewhat worried that a marmot would be chewing on my boots when I got back, or that they had done it in interim, but that turned out to not be an issue. Took a pic facing further west, maybe not at Tabeguache, but maybe? I took a pano but I now believe that 14ers.com will not allow that here. Too bad, unless someone tells me otherwise. The shadows on the mountain from the clouds are much more apparent, but I guess this adequately conveys that: Summit clouds A note to all of you out there who have dogs and decide to bring them: I don't know if there was a strange smell in the air up on Shavano, but when a kind lady wants to say hello to your animal, and your animal bites at her arm, maybe that dog isn't ready for high elevation ("she never DOES that", and no other recourse, is not the correct response!). A bruise on the arm, and a tiny piercing of the puffy jacket I loaned her, plus hopefully otherwise fond memories is what she'll have from this.. Something nice that should be up there still, a placard that says Shavano, and Tabeguache on the other side but I guess it could be re-appropriated, and the appropriate elevations. I take all of my pictures at summits without a shirt on... This is tradition and should never be disputed. Picture here was sent from me lady, I don't know why a phone decides to degrade all pictures sent directly from: The demanded shirtless summit pic On coming back to our bags that we left at the summit, I did happen to notice that a chipmunk had been fooling around inside Jess' pack. She asked later if something had been inside, since the zipper was more open than when she left it. At this moment, I did think of my boots being munched on by a marmot, but NAY! IT DID NOT HAPPEN. I have no pictures of my descent, Jess did glissade the first, dislocated arm of her (the angel, not Jess), which was where the best snow was, but she had trouble stopping herself on her butt so she didn't try the rest of the 1000 feet. Good idea, since my descent wasn't the most comfortable. I'd still say it's better than St Mary's at this time of year, for those who have done it, but better than St Mary's in September for sure... Boarding cement is a silly venture. But I may find myself doing it then. Personally, for me, my splitboard is somewhat new to me, and I think some of my problem with the angel was that, with the somewhat angled descent, I needed to have my bindings pushed forward a bit more, I found myself losing my back edge and sliding for 20 feet or so before getting back up. Probably need to push her forward a bit more on less forgiving snow such as this. Jess decided to join me down in the canyon, several hundred feet below the established path that goes up, which gave a bit of grief due to the scree around. I think the speed of glissade would have really, really stressed her out if she had taken the easy way. But the path back down, once done with the snow, was just fine. Thankfully with a GPS, pretty easy to find our way back to the path (11,232') so about 1000' of vertical loss to get back to the trail. This was ridden with many a downed tree, but a beautiful, and non-peopled, trip. Bootiful vallaaaya Hope this helps! If anyone's thinking "HEY WHERES THE SNOW", it's still there for awhile. But of course, its other places, too, and probably in a better, more north-facing aspect. As far as 14er's go, this was my first board down. You can say it doesn't count as an official "14ers descent" and I'd agree with you, but it was special for me. I always enjoy the "IS THERE SNOW???" or "ARE YOU GONNA BOARD THAT???" or "WAS THAT YOU???" that accompanies a summer trip. Up until now, it had only been commented on at St. Mary's, but that place is just about the closest you can get with front-range visitors, so it makes sense. Another question I had at St Mary's from some pissed off 15 year old girl - "How much longer?" she said "oh, about 15" we said Her response "15 WHAT?" "Minutes" i thinks was our answer there, but later, we were wondering what the hell she could have wondered. We settled on "cheeseburgers." It's another 15 cheeseburgers to the top of St. Mary's. My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload): Login required to view this map... Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

The Tired Angel of Shavano

Hi everyone, this will be my first report. I realize I don't have enough pictures on this one already! But the time was good, so I wanted to share it here.

My parents have a place up in Fairplay, and my lady and I decided to leave for it on Friday. If anyone has not had the pleasure of having tamales at the Fairplay bowling alley, South Park Bowl Bar and Grill, well as far as I'm concerned, you are doing yourself a disservice. I consider myself a person who likes to eat food, and for bowling alley food, well, it is VERY EDIBLE. I'd like to try their breakfast, which is served all day. Maybe I'm trash, but I'm looking forward to some bacon and eggs and a frame or two. The service is nice. You might say, 'Hey, Scott (my name is not Grunty), was the bowling good?' Well, I don't know yet, we just wanted to eat and I had been wanting to try the food, so FUNK YOU if you want to know about the bowling. Maybe I'll tell you later, in a trip report?

Decided on an 8:00 bedtime for a 3:00 morning call. Got to the Shavano trailhead at Blank's Cabin at 5:30, and after a problem at the restroom (bring your own toilet paper), we were on the up at 6:00.

A picture from google, of what the Angel of Shavano should look like:

Here's what it looked like on thaaat day:

What I imagine (this was my first Shavano trip, and 3rd 14er so far) is that conditions were similar to many a summer morning. Not a lick of snow on the way up. The Angel started at an elevation of 12,184', and maxed out at 13,198', with about maybe a 30 foot break in her right arm, if she is a she, and she is looking up at the sky. Picture of that here?

Stashed my splitboard there, with my boots still in their ski-style bindings. From other reports I had read on this, I was somewhat worried that a marmot would be chewing on my boots when I got back, or that they had done it in interim, but that turned out to not be an issue.

Took a pic facing further west, maybe not at Tabeguache, but maybe? I took a pano but I now believe that 14ers.com will not allow that here. Too bad, unless someone tells me otherwise. The shadows on the mountain from the clouds are much more apparent, but I guess this adequately conveys that:

A note to all of you out there who have dogs and decide to bring them: I don't know if there was a strange smell in the air up on Shavano, but when a kind lady wants to say hello to your animal, and your animal bites at her arm, maybe that dog isn't ready for high elevation ("she never DOES that", and no other recourse, is not the correct response!). A bruise on the arm, and a tiny piercing of the puffy jacket I loaned her, plus hopefully otherwise fond memories is what she'll have from this..

Something nice that should be up there still, a placard that says Shavano, and Tabeguache on the other side but I guess it could be re-appropriated, and the appropriate elevations. I take all of my pictures at summits without a shirt on... This is tradition and should never be disputed. Picture here was sent from me lady, I don't know why a phone decides to degrade all pictures sent directly from:

On coming back to our bags that we left at the summit, I did happen to notice that a chipmunk had been fooling around inside Jess' pack. She asked later if something had been inside, since the zipper was more open than when she left it. At this moment, I did think of my boots being munched on by a marmot, but NAY! IT DID NOT HAPPEN.

I have no pictures of my descent, Jess did glissade the first, dislocated arm of her (the angel, not Jess), which was where the best snow was, but she had trouble stopping herself on her butt so she didn't try the rest of the 1000 feet. Good idea, since my descent wasn't the most comfortable. I'd still say it's better than St Mary's at this time of year, for those who have done it, but better than St Mary's in September for sure... Boarding cement is a silly venture. But I may find myself doing it then.

Personally, for me, my splitboard is somewhat new to me, and I think some of my problem with the angel was that, with the somewhat angled descent, I needed to have my bindings pushed forward a bit more, I found myself losing my back edge and sliding for 20 feet or so before getting back up. Probably need to push her forward a bit more on less forgiving snow such as this.

Jess decided to join me down in the canyon, several hundred feet below the established path that goes up, which gave a bit of grief due to the scree around. I think the speed of glissade would have really, really stressed her out if she had taken the easy way. But the path back down, once done with the snow, was just fine. Thankfully with a GPS, pretty easy to find our way back to the path (11,232') so about 1000' of vertical loss to get back to the trail. This was ridden with many a downed tree, but a beautiful, and non-peopled, trip.

Hope this helps! If anyone's thinking "HEY WHERES THE SNOW", it's still there for awhile. But of course, its other places, too, and probably in a better, more north-facing aspect. As far as 14er's go, this was my first board down. You can say it doesn't count as an official "14ers descent" and I'd agree with you, but it was special for me. I always enjoy the "IS THERE SNOW???" or "ARE YOU GONNA BOARD THAT???" or "WAS THAT YOU???" that accompanies a summer trip. Up until now, it had only been commented on at St. Mary's, but that place is just about the closest you can get with front-range visitors, so it makes sense. Another question I had at St Mary's from some pissed off 15 year old girl -

"How much longer?" she said

"oh, about 15" we said

Her response "15 WHAT?"

"Minutes" i thinks was our answer there, but later, we were wondering what the hell she could have wondered. We settled on "cheeseburgers." It's another 15 cheeseburgers to the top of St. Mary's.

My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

Rollie Free	Angel? 7/15/2015 1:14pm We were there last month. When we first drove by it was like your initial picture. We called it the grinch of Shavano. A few days in Crestone and came back to climb it and indeed it had already transformed into the entrancing Angel. However it was fading even at that. Pretty short season on mountain angels. Like catching a leprechaun.
jdfors	bad dog 7/15/2015 3:22pm I was at the summit walking right past you when that dog bit your girlfriend. She had a much better response than I would have. But it was a beautiful day on the mountain, nice report.
grunty	Ha! 7/15/2015 9:28pm This site is so ubiquitously read – of COURSE someone who just read my report was also there! Yeah, aside from some muttering under her breath and trash talk about dogs on a mountain, she took it pretty well. And Rollie Free, I love comparing what my angel looked like compared to what the lucky ones get to see. It’s like how the pictures on the tv dinners so rarely match what comes out of the microwave. And the desserts in those, what a waste! A brownie is just sloppy choco–goo! But I digress.
jesusfreak1824	Bowling Alley 7/16/2015 9:26am Grunty, I’ll back you up on that bowling alley in Fairplay. I’ve been to South Park Bowl several times and their food is surprisingly awesome! Seriously, for a bowling alley, quite tasty! Oh yeah and the bowling is good too...

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