Peak: Mount Shavano
Climbing Route: Angel of Shavano, Up the head
Skiing Route: Lookers right arm to angel
Mileage: 8.25 RT
Vertical: 4,600 ft
Partners in crime: Andy Z., Bill Middlebrook

“Shavano is not a skiers mountain!”

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that phrase from other ski mountaineers trying to complete the somewhat tedious task of skiing from the summit of each and every peak above 14,000 feet here in Colorado. The reason people say this about Shavano, is that this peak has made a bad habit of blowing itself free of snow before the snow has a chance to consolidate and fill in all the holes. Well this was my second attempt at skiing the peak named after the chief of a Ute tribe. The first time I didn’t even go above timberline, this time luck was on our side.

One fact of life that hasn’t been my favorite part of living in Fort Collins, is that with the exception of Long’s Peak, it is a long drive to all the rest of them. Well Shavano is no exception and my alarm went off at 2:30 AM. I drove a couple blocks over and picked up Andy. We were driving out of Fort Collins around 3 AM and drove down and through Denver and up the hill. We met Bill in Frisco and jumped in his car for the next hour and a half to the Snowclosure.

Now here is where the fun part of the day starts. Bill had towed his Snowmobiles up with us, so we unloaded them and started to drive up the 4.5 miles to the snowclosure. About a mile of which is dry road. After some overheating issues with the sled we eventually made it to the Blank Gulch Trailhead. As we pulled up Bill noticed something smoking in the back of the sled I was driving. It smelled something like burning plastic. The ensuing conversation went something like this:
Me: What is that smell?
Bill: Lets see
Bill: Oh crap!
Me: What is it?
Bill: Your Pack fell down behind the exhaust!
Me: Ohh Shit! How bad is it?
Bill: Uh…
Needless to say there was some gear that is no longer useable.
A couple Pictures of the damage:

After Jerry-rigging my pack to make it work for the day we headed off up the Colorado trail to the Shavano trail that splits off. We wound our way up through the forest and broke treeline just below the angel.

No wind yet…it was hot. We had been climbing in our T-shirts so far, and treeline didn’t change that. I watched as Bill and Andy wound their way around the corner and on up the bottom of the angel.

We regrouped a little before it got steep and talked about having to boot up part of it, but it wasn’t likely that there were going to be many problems with avy danger today. I took up the lead at this point and started putting in switchbacks up the right side of the angel.

I kept waiting for the moment where it got too steep and frustrating to continue on up the slope on skins, but that point didn’t come until about 30-40 ft below the summit. I shouldered them and climbed the last 5 minutes or so to the summit on a gorgeous bluebird day.

Bill and Andy found a different route up and made it a short time later.

Well now it’s time for the fun part. A little food and water later it was time for the Corn Harvest.

Bill doesn’t care about skiing from the summit (it usually involves beating up your skis) and left his where the good snow started. But regardless, this is the best I’ve ever seen Shavano, and I was going to take advantage of a summit descent. I poled off the top and a few jump turns and sideslips later and I was into truly skiable snow.

I skied down to where Bill had left his skis and it was Andy’s turn. We skied a ways down the ridge to the arm of the angel and made some turns towards the body. There was one thin section where a few rocks were tagged, but other than that it was smooth sailing.

Bill:

Andy:

Me:

The Canvas:

Looking at our line from the top:

The day was a good one, sunny and warm. We skied back up to the sleds and packed up the cinders and headed off back to the truck. It was a long day, but it was a fun one with Corn to go around.
Thanks for coming boys.