Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-06-01, By: Habret Info: Hiked east slopes, skied Angel. The body is still filled in from the saddle, but melting fast. Maintaining a continuous ski line below 13,000' is difficult, but there's still a little bit of fun near treeline. Overall, not particularly worth bringing skis right now. Microspikes will help you! |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2023-06-01, By: Nlogan2534 Info: The trail is clear up to about 12,000 feet. From about 12,200 to 12,800 there is significant snow coverage on the trail. The snow was firm and east to manage early in the morning, but it was slushy and a bit treacherous later in the day on the way down. Getting up to the saddle at 13,400ish is mixed. Some snow crossing is required. The final 800 vertical feet to the summit is mixed with some steeper snow climbing required. I did it without traction, but I did have poles which were a big help. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-30, By: rambis_21 Info: Don't miss the Angel trail turn off if you want to avoid major bushwacking through trees. We found the trail on the way down. Snowshoes were helpful on the way down still with snow in trees below the angel. Snow is mostly avoidable. next week or 2 will melt much more and snowshoes won't be needed. Decent amount of snow up Tab from the saddle. Glissaded down Angel was awesome. Almost too soft around 11:00 am. Without Gators meant no way to keep boots dry. Worth it. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-27, By: Jason Halladay Info: Standard route up Shavano to Tabeguache & back is straight forward intermittent snow and rocks. Traction and snowshoes not needed. Plenty of snow around treeline but kicked in steps/track makes it easy. Go early to minimize postholing. |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-05-22, By: dwoodward13 Info: Snow line starts just prior to the turnoff to the Angel from the standard route. There's a decent track thru the trees to follow. Angel itself has nice coverage. A multitude of boot tracks to aid in your ascent. We ended up turning around near the wings due to poor snow conditions, but coverage looked good further on up. Saw 3 skiers that looked like they were having a tough time in the variable/slushy conditions. Used flotation on the way out starting just above treeline until within about a quarter mile of the standard route. Those that didn't looked like they had a hell of a time postholing. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-16, By: Omatt89 Info: Made it to shavano tab th or blanks cabin th after a very bumpy and rocky approach on 250. Road is clear. Takes 45mins to an hour from 140. Skied the angel today straight off the summit of shavano , towards the smaller peak on skiers left side. Rode to the bottom of the drainage in front of the angel right at treeline. Snow and Snow piles continue down for about a half a mile. 40 percent chance of snow today turned out to be on the surrounding peaks, but didn't form until afternoon and shavano was sunny. Ridge to tab is very snowy and alot longer looking than I thought Snow in the woods starts around 10900? A quarter mile form the sharp left turn you make to head up towards the angel alongside a stream. At 8am it was walkable in boots up to the bottom of the angel where I put snowshoes on. The snow in the woods is pretty easy to navigate following the trench. Snow for .5miles before treeline is pretty thick, I suspect it will be that way for another 2 weeks. The line I took straight off the summit is getting thin in just a couple spots but I suspect that will be in for another 5 days or so then you might just have to cross over some rocky sections. All in all, had a great but very hard day, got to ride some fun snow for atleast a mile and 2500 vertical atleast |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-05-05, By: seeking timberline Info: Skied the Angel of Shavano today. CR 250 and 252 are clear of snow all the way to the Blanks Cabin trailhead. A large drift just past Placer Creek is melted enough that you can skirt by it. The Colorado Trail is completely dry. The Shavano trail is its normal rocky, miserable self up to about 10,400 then intermittent snow. At 10,700 the snow became continuous and I put on skins for the climb up to the base of the Angel. There is stable, continuous snow from the base of the Angel all the way up to the Esprit Point / Shavano saddle at 13,500 feet. Going up in the morning the body of the Angel was rock-hard ice. Crampons are definitely recommended. Above the Angel the snow is windblown but skiable. Dropped in from the saddle at 10:00 a.m. and by then the Angel had turned to perfect corn snow, making for some fun turns all the way back to tree line. Once the trees got too tight to ski, I put skins back on for flotation through the snow in the trees which by mid-day was wet and slushy. |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-05-01, By: ButterDips12 Info: Splitboarded the Angel of Shavano today. Was able to snowboard from 13.5k to just below 11k. There is not snow at the trailhead and not much snow for the first mile. After that you could skin it for all but a few sections. The lower section of the trail below tree line is melting out fast. |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-04-25, By: SageCanaday Info: Snowdrift was kind of blocking the road about 2.6 miles before Blanks TH on Rd. 252..... you can take Rd 250a instead and drive dry all the way to Blanks TH though. CT section and about the first 0.7 miles of trail were mostly clear of snow. Snow in the trees that was firm enough in the morning to mostly walk on without flotation....later in the afternoon I'd highly recommend flotation as we were post-holing on the way out. Saw several other parties doing the winter ascent/descent on the Angel of Shavano route as well. Would not recommend the East Route (standard summer route) quite yet as the snow gets quite deep near treeline at around 11,600- 12,000' still on that route when it swings out to climber's right and the snow drifts across the trail (still hard to find in spots) at a fairly steep angle before cracking treeline. Was able to skin (with kick turns on AT skis) up the body of the angel around noon as it had warmed up enough to dig my edges in. My girlfriend made it up on running snowshoes, and we were both using ski poles. Probably would recommend crampons or ice spikes if it was firm and icy early in the morning (but it was turning a little slushy in the sun by late morning). Had to bootpack up the right wing (melting out a lot faster than the left wing!) of the Angel and then made the summit on that line in my ski boots after hiking over the dried out rocky portion. Attempted to ski off the summit but snow was quite variable in the rocks and I was a bit worried about a core shot or bending an edge. The few turns I made were a bit dicey as it was kind of wet and slushy in spots, but then also firm and icy in others. I still think the left wing (climber's left) and body of the Angel will hold snow pretty well for several more weeks and would be the preferred ascent and descent route still (on skis or on foot with flotation/traction). If you're going down that way it's probably easier to just stick to the standard trail route off the summit and avoid some of the steeper snowy pitches. |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-04-24, By: CheapCigarMan Info: Another bluebird Sunday. Virtually no wind. Intermittent mud and snow through the woods. No traction or flotation on the ascent, used flotation on the descent through the woods. Used crampons on the body and the Angel's left wing (climber's right). Rocky at the saddle. Then used crampons again for the last 400' of the summit. Glisaded from the Angel's head and body on the descent. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2023-04-17, By: Zleisure Info: Would not recommend East Slopes. Get your spikes/crampons/good snowshoes and ice axe and go up the Angel. Left Angel of Shavano campground @ 5:55am and booted to ~10,600' because it was still frozen before putting on snowshoes. On East Slope route at ~11,660' I crossed a little avey chute. I didn't like it and that the route crossed back over that terrain until it would come out above tree line so booted on the NE side of the East ridge which was dry up to 12,600' on the East ridge, then came down to the standard route. Crossing the Angel head at ~1000am I needed spikes as it was still too slick for only boots, but by 1pm it was slushy and I could cross easily kicking in with boots. Would recommend float for from the bottom of the Angel almost all the way back to the Colorado trail. I was postholing even with snowshoes in sections in the mid-afternoon. |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-04-08, By: Christensenje Info: Skied it today If Im being really honest, Im sorry skiers, but its just not in this year. From the summit, you can finagle maybe 10 turns before putting your skis on your pack for a LONG, dry walk down and over to a sliver of what is remaining on the angels wings. From there, we were able to ski back down to within half a mile of the trailhead. With the high pressure rolling in this week, there not going to be much left of the wings in 2 weeks. The north east face, south of Shavano looks like wayyyy more fun skiing if thats what youre after. Hikers, coverage is amazing. You can (with flotation), hike on snow up the gully to find the dry trail weave in and out of the snow patches. There is snow almost the whole way from the trailhead, so you do want some flotation. Parking wise, we didnt want to risk it so we parked at Angel Campground. It adds 3.5 miles and 700-800 feet, so the total day was around 11.25 miles and 53,000-5,500ish vert. The best beta I had for the main road that we found out afterwards is you can maybe get to 2 miles away from the trailhead adding 4 total miles but less vert. Have fun! Be safe! Check CAIC before going! |
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Route: Angel of Shavano Posted On: 2023-03-19, By: tefensmom Info: Parked at the Angel Campground. Flotation definitely needed, almost all the way to the summit. Snow in the Angel was mostly soft (with a little bit of wind crust). Theres a 4-6inch layer of soft unsupportive snow, but below that the snow is consolidated from what we were able to tell from the two pits we dug. Skiable from the top of the Angel. In the morning there was snow from where we parked, but on our way down it was melted the last ~.5 mile. I was in snowshoes and my hiking partner was on a splitboard. I postholed in the snowshoes on the approach/descent a decent amount. Saw a few others skiing/riding. I tried to glissade down the Angel but the glissade is definitely not yet in. I was tired and didnt feel like going for Tab and then getting down in the dark. |
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Route: East ridge -> Tabaguache -> Antero Posted On: 2023-01-11, By: Chrisfish25 Info: Laid a deep trench up the east face of Shavano, staying in the more dense trees. Wind scoured up high. Very windy day. Across to Tabaguache, down Tab North face & over to Antero. Winds were so strong on Antero, practically bear crawled to the peak. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2022-11-24, By: livpluhar Info: The trail had a nice trench so route finding was easy. I used micro spikes above the treeline and on my way down, helpful but not necessary. Overall, the trail was in great condition and made for a smooth day of hiking. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2022-11-22, By: Dt13 Info: No wind, no clouds, and no one else on the summit! Only saw one other solo hiker. The road to the east slopes TH is completely dry and clear of snow. The trail has patches of snow mainly in the forest, but almost no snow above treeline. Didn't need traction or snowshoes. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2022-11-20, By: Adam_swain Info: Great but long day on the mountain. Thin well packed snow covers ~70% of the trail. Spikes would be helpful for some parts below treeline, but this can definitely be done without spikes. Beautiful weather with almost no wind. Road was great too. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2022-11-13, By: bmwfuture Info: Minimal snow throughout. Traction not necessary but recommended for way down as the melt water refreezes on the trail. Trail following difficult on Tabeguache ascent, so you'll need to hop from rock to rock. Be careful, many large loose rocks on Tabeguache. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2022-11-05, By: ballardwf04 Info: Road to trailhead is totally clear with some snow/frost last quarter mile. Route itself is blanketed in about a foot of snow, less in parts. Traction is not necessary but will much improve your life. We ended up summiting Shavano late but didn't make it to Tabaguache (damn, I'm going to have to come back). Windy as hell and not as easy as I remembered. Still, good to get some winter summit practice in. |
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Route: East Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-17, By: FinnishFlicka Info: Hiked Shavano and Tabeguache on a beautiful Sunday. The route up was ladden with fog, but by the time we got to the saddle, we had the privilege of spending the rest of the time on the summits above the clouds, with a beautful cloud inversion, no wind in sight. Trail is still clear and dry - only a few very avoidable patches of snow on the ridge. Walking through the aspen grove near the trailhead was the perfect way to end the day. |