Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/7755631622
Two days after climbing Mt Bierstadt, Mt Evans, and the Sawtooth Traverse linking them together I met up with another friend I met through the #30daysupsidedown handstand challenge to tackle my 8th and 9th Colorado fourteeners. Ryan (@nekoboushikun on Instagram) and I chose to do the Mount Shavano and Tabeguache Peak combo route, as “Tab” was the final one he needed to complete the fifteen fourteeners of the Sawatch Range. Everyone I talked to about this route told me it would be a slog. They weren’t wrong. But the scenery was nice and so was the weather. I am somehow nine for nine with great weather on fourteeners (all of my Colorado mountain adventures have been scheduled weeks or months in advance given that I live in Michigan, and I have not had to cancel a planned hike yet!).
I was staying in Colorado Springs (thanks so much Aly for letting me crash at your place!), which is about a three-hour drive from the Shavano-Tabeguache trailhead, so I picked Ryan up at 4a for a 7a hike start. We drank our caffeinated beverages and chatted mountains and trails and Final Fantasy video games, which we both grew up playing. The last few miles of the drive were a little rough and rocky but nothing the rental car couldn’t handle. It was light by the time we set off on the trail but it was a chilly morning so I kept my Patagonia fleece and gloves on to start.
The first half mile or so of the trail was pretty flat and followed the Colorado Trail through some aspens until the Shavano Trail split off perpendicular and to the left, up the slope.
Ryan gave me a head start while he prepped his gear so I hiked alone for about a half hour until he caught up to me. This section was heavily forested and a steady grind over a rocky but well-defined trail. It was reminiscent of the rocky trails I’d hiked earlier in the year at Katahdin and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
I wasn’t sure how hiking another pair of 14ers would go just two days after doing Bierstadt-Sawtooth-Evans (and in the day between I ran ten miles at Red Rock Canyon Open Space and the surrounding trail network instead of resting), but I felt strong. I had a lot of work to do, though. This was a 12 mile round-trip with 5,400′ of gain (and an equal amount of loss, of course).
At approximately the three-mile mark we reached the tree line. We had views of Salida and environs to the west and a mountain of gray rock ahead.
The trail curved to the right and presented a view of the saddle between Mount Shavano and its 13,615′ neighbor to the south. We also saw a group of mountain goats but they disappeared before we could get close enough for a decent picture.
The elevation (and the cumulative fatigue of the previous two days of adventure and insufficient sleep) started catching up with me and Ryan pulled ahead. The next time I caught up to him I borrowed a trekking pole, which was a big help for the final push to the summits of Shavano and then Tabeguache.
The summit of Shavano was calm and even warm. Strange considering we were at 14,230′ but we weren’t complaining! Ryan had been on the summit of Mount Shavano before and had attempted to add Tab that day, but ended up having to bail due to sketchy weather. But we were confident we’d successfully summit it this day.
To get to the summit of Tabeguache, which is about 1.1 miles from the summit of Shavano, we had to descend about 500′ and then climb back up.
Unlike two days prior, I had no issues with nausea this time and I felt as strong as I ever have on a fourteener. I even ran up the last hundred feet of Tab in an excited burst of energy.
I told Ryan I was going to start heading back, knowing that I’d probably take longer to re-climb Shavano than he would. So I picked my way quickly down the rocky shoulder of Tab to the saddle and then began the grind back up towards the summit of Shavano, since going back over the summit was the safest and easiest way back.
Ryan caught up near the summit, where I gave him the trekking pole back, and we started the long descent back to the trailhead. High elevation tends to be cool, but with the calm air, direct sun, and absence of shade we were pretty warm and ready to get back below tree line and in the shade. I didn’t take many photos on the descent, and we moved pretty quickly (switching from hiking to intermittent running once we were back below tree line).
Back at the trailhead we cranked the air conditioning and drove into Salida. We went to Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub for lunch and then spent a couple hours at Cottonwood Hot Springs soaking and relaxing in the hot water (with an occasional cold plunge in Cottonwood Creek) and chatting with the other patrons before we made the drive back to Colorado Springs. Thanks again for making time to spend a day in the mountains with me, Ryan!