Saturday, October 4, 2008

Another exciting day on Shavano & Tabaguache

Shavano & Tabeguache
August 31, 2008
14,229 ft & 14, 155

This was my second attempt on Shavano and Tabaguache. The first time I only made it to Shavano before descending and then getting lost...feel free to read that post from May. So this time, when Emily told me she wanted to do Shav & Tab, I was ready to give it another try. We had plenty of time to make both summits, and no snow this time, so I was psyched :-) Little did we know, we still had quite an adventure ahead of us...

At the trailhead, ready to start our day!The beautiful southern SawatchHere's a view of what would be the Angel if there had been more snow. The summer trail was much easier than the winter Angel trail. Here we all are on the summit of Shavano. It was pretty cloudy up on the summit, but the clouds were very non-threatening and we made sure to keep a close watch on them. They looked more like snow clouds-I was kind of hoping it would snow for a little bit, but we never did see any flakes.
Jill, Chad, me, Emily and Jenny (in the front)The Shavano register w/a 14ers.com sticker :-)
So we hung out on the top of Shavano for a little bit as we discussed whether or not to continue onto Tabaguache. The clouds looked perfectly harmless, we felt great, so we decided to go for it!
Here we are on our way to Tabaguache. The clouds had parted and we had a beautiful view! After maybe an hour or so, we'd made it to the top of Tabaguache. Woohoo! After my second try, I'd made it! Summit number 22!Emily, Chad and I made it up first and hung out while we waited for Jill and Jenny to make sure we got a summit shot :-) Em and I on Tabaguache :-)Here we are beginning our traverse back over Shavano. Emily, Chad and I started ahead of Jill and Jenny. We should have stayed together... Traversing just below the Shavano summit. This was the last picture I took because from here on out, well, we were pretty much running away from a storm. Yes, a storm. So as I said before, the clouds all day had been not even close to threatening, but a storm came in out of no where, and fast. So we decided we had to get off the summit as fast as we could. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay ahead of it. We were well below the ridge, but still well above tree line. Not gonna lie, it was perhaps the most scared I've ever been on a mountain! Plus, two of our friends were higher up and I was a little worried about them. The storm was moving extremely fast, and even before we made it to tree line, the storm was long gone.

After a loooong walk back to the car, we'd finally made it back and we were relieved, but unfortunately, Jill and Jenny were still on the mountain with the car keys. So all we could do was wait. We were still pretty wet and knew we needed to keep warm so we decided to build a fire. Unfortunately, all the wood was wet because of the storm that had recently passed through, and as soon as we started to get a decent fire going, it started raining. Again. Go figure. By this time, another hiker and his young son had returned to the trailhead. We'd talked to him briefly when they arrived back at the trailhead, and told him of our situation, and graciously, he said we could hang out in his van with his son and their dog if we started to get too cold. He said they were planning on hanging out for a while, but I honestly think he was waiting for us to make sure we were ok; and I genuinely thank him for that!

So it was close to getting really dark out, and Jill and Jenny were still somewhere on the mountain and we had no idea where or how they were. We were getting a little worried because we weren't sure whether or not they had a head lamp or warm layers. What if they'd slipped on the rocks because of the rain, or a zillion other things! So after waiting for a good two hours, we decided that it was too close to dark and we should call SAR. So I went to get my phone, and who would have guessed, that before I even got my pack open to get my phone, Jill and Jenny are walking down from the trail! We couldn't believe it and we couldn't have been happier to see them! We were grateful they were safe, and even more grateful to get into the warm car and head home.

Yet another exciting day on Shavano and Tabaguache!

2 comments:

TAV said...

You continually impress me. well done! i didn't know sarah was moving to CO!

TAV said...

Happy Birthday, Friend!!! Is there another post coming soon? Miss you!