With a day of rest from doing Beford Harry, Michael, and I decided that we had enough left in our legs to attempt Mt Shavano. Mt Shavano is rated 5 spots higher than Mt Belford as far as difficulty to do on 14ers.com. We were a little concerned, as Mt Belford did tire us out quite a bit. Studying the route, trip reports, and the topo maps I was convinced that we could climb Mt Shavano by the standard East Slope. The route was only about a mile longer with about the same elevation gain as Mt Belford. The topo map did show some steep areas, but overall the climb looked like a gradual climb up to the summit, when comparing it to Mt Belford's steep Northwest Ridge.
The day got off to a slower start than what was planned as one of us didn't wake up on time. Harry blames the alarm clock. We still made it to the trail head just a little before 7:00 am. One reason we have started climbing in September is that we have a better chance of having a full day on the mountain compared with climbing in July or August. As long as the weather was good we would be fine getting to the summit and down.
I had read one trip report that stated one of the steepest parts of this climb is the second mile. I would have to agree with this. The first part of this climb you head straight up the side of the mountain. We kept a slow steady pace on the first parts of the trail. After the second mile the trail has switch back and wamers through the trees. This part of the trail is easy and we picked up our pace a little. If anyone is wanting to make this climb a two day there are great camping spots on the trail right after you cross the stream. Some trip reports have reported trouble in keeping on the trail. Going up we did have to focus on which way the trail was going, but it really isn't a problem if you are paying attention to the trail. We found that cell phone coverage was great on this mountain. On one break about halfway up the mountain Harry and Michael were sending emails. I had left my wife in FL to come to CO and I got a phone call on the way up Mt Shavano from my wife to tell me she now had cell phone service at our FL home after the hurricane.
When we broke out of the trees we got our first view (false summit) of Mt Shavano. This part of the trail is a long transverse to the base of the saddle of Mt Shavano. The trail has a gentle elevation gain until you get to the base of the saddle. The trail then gets steep with some loose rock areas. It was nothing that couldn't be handled with a slow steady pace. We were on the saddle in no time looking up at Mt Shavano. We followed a trail up into the rock pile that was the summit. Soon the trail kind of goes away. This is where the fun began. We could sometimes find a cairn and a preferred trail, but most of the time we were on our own to pick and choose a way up. We all felt this was a fun part of the climb. We met two climbers on the way down from the summit and we all had a group almost at the summit photos taken. In all we saw 4 people on this climb. Another good reason to climb in September.
Making it to the top of our second 14er on this trip was just âIcing on the Cake.â We looked over at Tabeguache Peak, but we knew that it would have to be another day for it. The ridge over to Tabeguache Peak looked very rough and maybe above our skill level.
After taking in the summit we moved down the mountain. On the long transverse to get to the tree line we saw a group of 10 Big Horn Sheep. We got a lot of photos, but none with all 10 sheep in a photo. We need a sheep dog to herd them into a group photo for us. We stopped at the tree line and took a lunch break. We saw that bad weather was coming in again and we all thought that we were going to get wet. It was dropping in temperature and very windy. Harry and Michael put on their rain jackets. The storm went by dropping only a few drops of rain on us. We again dodged the storm.
We all thought that Mt Shavano was one of our most enjoyable climbs. We were tired when we finished, but not near as tired as we were when we climb Mt Belford the day before. We would all recommend Mt Shavano over Mt Belford if you are looking for one of the easier 14ers to climb. I would not be worried about getting to the trail head. The road is a little rough, but easily manageable with a two wheel drive sedan. There was only one spot on the road that really needed a slow attentive approach.
I wrote in our trip report on Mt Belford this was our tenth year in coming to Colorado. We are all high school friends in which our friendship has grown stronger over the years. We are not stopping until we can't walk anymore. We are planning our trip for next year. See you guys on the trail next September.