We managed to squeeze one more 14er in for the season! It was a close call because it started snowing on us at the top, but even when we were driving home at the end of the day, I kept looking through our guidebook wondering if we could do even one more…
We had the amazing Daniels girls, and their 9 year old brother Will, babysit through the night Friday and all day Saturday. It worked out really well and I’m excited to use them more regularly, even for regular dates.
We left really early this time and got to the trailhead an hour before sunrise. We probably should have started hiking then but we really weren’t prepared with gloves, snow hats, and headlamps, so we rested until the sun started to come up and then hit the trail. It was an effort to climb both Shavano and Tabeguache, and we felt confident about getting both peaks in until we came to a saddle below the Shavano summit and the icy wind hit us and continued to beat us down for about an hour. That, plus the gathering storm clouds, curbed our enthusiasm and we were happy just to get Shavano by the time we’d scrambled up the last boulder.
I’ve always wanted to do Shavano. During our first years of marriage, when we would drive to Montrose to see my mom, we would go right past the sign that pointed out Shavano and Tabeguache and I would always say how I wanted to hike them. Now we have Tabeguache to come back and get next time, but probably from the back rather than by going over Shavano again.
It was also fun to hike a 14er in another area of the state. The rocks, the trail, the view from the top, all are so different depending on which mountain range the 14er is in.
Now the count is 15: Sarah. 7: Mike. We had a talk about him catching up to me. In fact, during this 9 hour hike, we caught up on about 9 months of life with each other! It’s amazing the things you can finally talk about when you are alone above tree line!
I also studied the other 14ers and decided, with some training to get us used to Class 3 climbs, we could potentially climb 50 of the 55 peaks in Colorado. The other 5 require actual rock climbing and ropes, which I just don’t see in our future (in the wild, at least!) at this time.
Until next year, 14ers! I’m comin’ for ya!
