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Fellow Adventurers: Eric Sigler, Todd Rivas, Alison Ordelheide, Jennifer Wentworth, and Sarah Ridgway
Friday after work, we collected all our gear, crammed it into my car, and headed down to Salida. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset as we traversed across the sparse plain of South Park. Our friend Sarah (Todd, Eric, and I met Sarah on Handies last September) graciously hosted us for the weekend. Saturday morning, after a delicious breakfast, we drove to the Blank Gulch Trailhead, about 15 miles west of Salida, the last 8 miles are a decent dirt road.
We started hiking at about 9:00 AM. After a brief leg on the Colorado Trail, we headed west up towards Shavano following the East Slopes Route, a class 2 hike. The temperature at the start was in the 50's with sunshine and light winds. About a mile up the trail, we started running into small snow patches. These patches became more ubiquitous as we climbed, until we could no longer determine where the trail was from time to time. Following the footprints of previous hikers, we found the trail just as it turned north out of the gulch. Soon we were treated by amazing views of the Arkansas River valley to the east. The trail disappeared into a snowfield as we came onto the ridgeline near a rocky point. From here, the route was obvious -- upward along the ridge. We climbed a steep snow slope for several hundred feet. The snow conditions were quite good in most spots, but we occasionally post-holed through. By this time we were off the actual route (the trail for East Slopes is actually on the south side of the ridgeline), but we continued to climb along the snow-free ridge top for about 2000 vertical feet, enjoying the fabulous views along the way. By this time, our group had spread out, with some reaching the summit an hour before the rest of us. Temperatures were quite warm for May (mid 40s to mid 50s with sunshine and occasional breezes). At 13,600 feet we came upon the saddle: Shavano's summit was finally visible. After climbing the last 600 vertical feet, we reached the summit at around 2:30 pm (6 hrs). We were greeted by amazing views of Colorado's snowcapped peaks. Some of our group traversed 0.75 miles across to Tabegauche Peak (14,155 ft).
Jennifer and I reached the summit just as the Todd, Eric, and Allison were reaching the summit of Tabegauche. Sarah headed down to the Saddle above the Angel to wait for us. This was Jennifer's first 14'ner! When she saw the incredible views at the top, she said that the reward was worth the strenuous effort involved. By 3 pm it had clouded up and the wind increased to 20-30 mph. The temperature dropped to 39 F (wind chill of 18 F) so we bundled up and headed south down the summit ridge to the saddle at the top of the Angel.
After a little scouting around, we rendezvoused with Sarah and waited for the rest of the gang to meet us. We contacted them by radio and found out that they were traversing the difficult boulder field below Shavano. While we were waiting, we watched several snow boarders ride down the Angel. After about 20 minutes, they arrived and at 3:30 pm, we donned our snow gear and ice axes and started sliding down the Angel. By this time, the winds were gusting to around 40 mph on the saddle -- this was not a great place to be if you didn't have the proper clothing. We slid about 1400 vertical feet down the Angel, starting from the left (southern) arm. The `sledding' was a blast, but would have been more comfortable if we had actually had a sled. Some of us practiced our self-arrest techniques with the ice axes, and others went for maximum speed and fun (me). The slope was not very steep (under 30 degrees) and the snow was sufficiently thick in most spots. As the gulch narrowed below the angel, we slid down a final steep stretch (perhaps at 25-30 mph) and then started hiking (post-holing) down the gulch to the trail. After we found the trail, it was about an hour to the car. The temperature was in the 60's, which felt quite warm after the cold wind at the top. We finished at 5:30 pm, drove back to Salida, and enjoyed a scrumptious dinner and evening of conversation.
The route was a class 2 hike, with some easy snow climbing and glissading. It took 6 hrs to reach the summit (at least for me -- others made it sooner). After half an hour on the top, the descent took about 2 hrs. Total distance was 9.0 miles (10.5 miles for those who did Tabegauche), and the total elevation gain was 4430 feet (5500 ft).
[INTRO PHOTO]
Fellow Adventurers:
Photo caption.
Posted: Last modified:
Located in the ?? range ... previous climbs (and/or reports), interesting facts. Summarize the trip (backpack vs. day hike, training vs. social hike vs. serious mountaineering)
Give highlights?
This peak . . . interesting facts about the trip down and/or backpack in, camping, etc.
Details of the climb (if starting from backpacking)
Time on top, 14'er #, weather, interesting features, interesting people.
To get the full immersive experience, I've prepared a 360 degree panorama:
[Panoramic photo]
W N E S
Click on the panorama to see the full size [size Kb].
Or you can view it interactively using this panorama viewer [size Mb -- warning, this will take a while to load on a modem connection].
If you have trouble viewing this file, you can also download this executable, save it to your desktop, then double-click on it to view the panorama. The executable file contains a viewer that should work regardless of your web browser.
From left to right, the main features are:
1. blah blah valley
[ Group Photo]
[ Crazy shot ]
[ Views of other peaks ]
I took a couple video clips which may be viewed using Windows Media Player. If using a modem, the broadband version will take very long, so a reduced-quality dial-up version is available:
Clip 1: Broadband [size Mb] or Dial-up [size Kb]
These files are in Windows Media Player format, so they should load automatically if you're on a Windows computer. There is no sound (in case you were expecting some).
Option sections - history of peak, wildlife, route info and alternates, map, gear, food
Might try to include feelings, sounds, smells - other thoughts about life and mountains, goals, etc.
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