Mt. Shavano

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/15/2025, By: gregpeak
Info: Full summer conditions. The new CFI trail is fabulous. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: peak9ine
Info: Camped at dispersed camping at TH the night before. Some June spot afternoon showers the week we were in the area. Main East slope trail to summit is all summer conditions as reported. The traverse across Angel of Shavano was hot on the descent (11:30 AM). Storm alerts around Noon on the way down, but nothing materialized. It's a great time to get out and hike this summit. Did not push to Tab, as I was with a group and we stuck together. The road up to the trailhead is very doable with some spots where you need to choose the right path around pits in the road. I was in my Subaru outback with 8.7 inches of ground clearance. I wouldn't take much lower, but did witness a Nissan Altima make the drive down... a few guys from England we met at the summit. :) If it helps for anyone reading who is new to summit attempts on Colorado 14ers, even though this is a class 2, we had 2 first timers in our group of 5 and they did great. The very top pitch is full of boulders where you could lose the trail a bit, but the summit is in clear view the entire pitch. The way down is much easier to trail spot. Enjoy the climb. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/12/2025, By: robbiemanta
Info: Trail is pretty much completely clear of snow all the way to the summit. There is still a bit of a river on the trail down low but pretty avoidable, my shoes didn’t get wet at least. The traverse between Shavano and Tabeguache was free of snow until the saddle where it is only a couple of inches deep. No problem with postholing. Snow on the ascent to Tabeguache is easily avoidable. Trailhead bathrooms have been unlocked and are open. 

Route: Angel of Shavano
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: GavinP537
Info: Climbed the Angel today. Started the angel at 7:50, bushwack before was filled with dead treefall. Snowfield was mush with not the best traction even with crampons. Took the right arm to the saddle. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: ILnoise
Info: Confirming the previous day's report on the TH bathrooms being locked this morning. Would also like to confirm that a decent section of the lower trail is sort of a river right now. You can mostly stay dry hopping along the banks. Upper route had several snow crossings I'd rate between inconsequential and minor inconvenience, but I doubt most of them will last much longer. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/7/2025, By: nohandz
Info: Few snow crossings that were frozen in the morning and slushy in the afternoon, but no post-holing. Bigger deal is the creek is well flooded about 2mi in just past the crossing, up to the CFI tent. No clouds today. Wind was on and off, but nice. Bathroom at the TH is locked. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: carmitz001
Info: Summer conditions. The two 100-foot snowfields around 12,100 feet were firm and easy to cross around 9 am without spikes. At 12,600 feet, I hiked north of the main trail in search of the new CFI trail. I found it around 12,700 feet, and it continued heading northwest until 13,700 feet. The trail has lots of rock stair switchbacks -- much better footing than the standard trail, and a more direct line too. I'm guessing CFI will extend this trail closer to the summit this summer. Big thank you to CFI for your amazing work on Shavano! 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: sfmarn06
Info: Basically summer conditions! We wore trail runners for the entire route up Shav & Tab. First encountered snow just above treeline. There are maybe 5-6 short stretches of snow (less than 100ft long) across the trail leading up to the saddle. We didn’t use microspikes; although, they may make some people feel more comfortable. The most snow we encountered was the 200 feet to the ridgeline of Tab; however, this can be easily avoided by staying climber’s left on the way up. Saw a handful of skiers going down the Angel around 11:15am. The snow was super soft by then & not glissadable (we tried). We had considered doing the Angel but didn’t think there would be a solid freeze; the snow along the trail was actually super firm though when we passed through that are around 6:30am. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/29/2025, By: Martinhill5
Info: Summer conditions until you cross the angels north wing. Microspikes not needed to summit. CFI has been doing trail restoration around 12-12.5k. Minor postholing on the final summit push but nothing more than knee deep. Did not tag Tab due to weather, but it looked like the ridge over still held a decent amount of snow. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: kushrocks
Info: Trail runner season has arrived on Shav and Tab. I took the ridge not the Angel up. The Angel is still there but melting fast. On the normal trail there are a few snow patches around tree line and a couple near the summit. The most snow I encountered was the lowest point in the saddle between Shav and Tab. I put microspikes on there for the up and and down on Tab but took them off the whole way down once I got back to the Shavano summit. Leave the snowshoes at home. 4:47 car to car 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: kbuckland
Info: Flew by the turn off to take the angel snow route so ended up taking the standard east slopes approach. Bit of a slog with skis, boards and boots on our backs. Left our snow gear at the top of the lookers left/skiers right arm of the angel and continued on to the summit. Decent amount of snow crossings but didn't use any traction, poles were helpful for the descent. In and out of the clouds all day and got hammered with graupel after the summit but despite the colder temps, the angel was holding some glorious corn. Rode really well. Looking forward to coming back a little earlier in the spring next time. Lots of great camping spots nearby the trailhead. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/24/2025, By: shaines90
Info: Trail is basically summer conditions until about 13k, where you cross the lookers' right wing of the Angel on your way up to the saddle. A few isolated snow patches around treeline, but very short and easy to cross. Some unavoidable snow patches from the saddle up to the summit, but there are so many tracks through them now that you'll have your choice of route. If you're thinking of bringing snowshoes, leave them at home - I brought mine because I wasn't sure of conditions below treeline, and never put them on; didn't use microspikes at any point either. Angel is getting very thin already and probably won't be continuously rideable for much longer. 

Route: Angel of Shavano
Posted On: 5/18/2025, By: spen_c_boy
Info: Started the Angel of Shavano route at 4:30am. Reached top of Shav around 8:30am. Traversed to Tab by around 9:30am. Back to Shav around 10:30pm. Returned to car around 1pm. 8.5 hours total car to car. The main (East Slopes) trail that leads to Angel of Shavano is mostly clear of snow (just a couple patches) till the split to Angel route. The Angel still has enough snow to ski. Intermittent snow after the Angel to summit of Shav. Traverse to Tab has plenty of snow still. Had to somewhat break a trail to traverse from Shav to Tab, and back. We didn't ski, but saw a group skiing the Angel on our way back to the car. 

Route: Angel of Shavano
Posted On: 5/11/2025, By: trailsandjoy
Info: 252 clean no snow till TH. Angel is fine after the week of snow. Still good amount of snow after ridge/false summit. I Used crampons. Still a lot wet snow in the forest. Polesholing a lot even the way in. 

Route: Angel of Shavano
Posted On: 5/2/2025, By: SageCanaday
Info: Started at Blanks Cabin trailhead at 7:45am. With yesterday's and this morning's cloud cover I knew the snow might take longer to soften up (I was also confident I could get up into the Angel within 2 hours...which I did). Objective was to climb and ski the "Left Wing" (Looker's Left) and then also tag Esprit Point (13,600' ridge on the left of the Angel) then ski down the left wing and body. Started in trail shoes for the hike and only started hitting patches of snow across the trail about 1.6 miles in. Drifts were solid and short-lived and I could walk over without slipping or sinking in (no traction or flotation)...then big patches of dry dirt (see pic 1). Water was flowing at the one "spring section". Didn't put the skis/skins on until I hit 11,700' and was already approaching the base of The Angel body (pic 2). There was actually another short rock band after this that I had to walk over still, but after that I was able to skin until the middle of the body. Snow was variable, with what seemed like a fresh inch or two on top of hard-packed and even icy sections. It was quite lumpy and uneven. I decided to bootpack from that point up into the wings split. Could do so without crampons or an axe, however if there wasn't a few inches of softer snow to kick into at this point, crampons would be a safer bet. Left my skis at the top of the Left Wing at 13,300' for a continual snow line that started at around 12,000'. Lookers "Right Wing" was looking very melted out and the Angels head was also disappearing quickly. I was short on time so I quickly summited the 13,600' "Espirt Point" on the ridge off to climber's left. Dropped in at around 11AM and was hoping the snow would be more consistently soft. Found it to be quite variable! Honestly I'd much rather ski this when it starts turning super soft and slushy so it's a bit more consistent (and of course corn is always the dream at this point in the year here!). Not sure how quickly it was going to warm up today with some patchy clouds though (usually it warms up faster at this time of year!). Was able to walk out without potholing much except for one step. We'll see what this weekend/next week's storms bring, but I think I might be hanging up the skis for the season on this line now.