Fast forward to this past week, we watched the weather and avalanche conditions and decided that Friday, January 29th and Saturday, January 30th were the best days to make our second attempt. As the trip drew nearer the avalanche conditions continued to look better but the forecast took a turn for the worse a few days before our planned departure. With a looming heavy snow storm that was forecasted to drop 12-16 inches starting at noon on the 30th we decided to be cautious about our planned summit day.
In preparation for the trip I purchased a new 4-Season tent from my favorite online store Sierra Trading Post. I've wanted a new winter camping tent for years and this trip was the perfect excuse to buy one (thanks for the support dear wife!). I decided to purchase the Marmot Midgard 2 Tent due to its many positive reviews but also the price was fantastic! Coming in at 8.5 lbs it's not the lightest tent but it had everything that I wanted in a true winter expedition style tent.
It's amazing the amount of gear needed for one night of winter camping.
The trip started Friday evening as we left Pueblo around 3:30pm. We picked up some pizza on the way for dinner on the road and for lunch on the ascent. We arrived at the Angel of Shavano trailhead at 630pm, already in the dark which isn't optimal but we couldn't get out of town any earlier. We finished loading our packs, strapped on snowshoes, and began our ascent up the mountain. The plan was to hike as far as possible in the evening, setup camp, eat dinner, then go to bed. After .5 miles of hiking, my son was tired of carrying his heavy pack so at 9300 feet we found as flat a spot as we could, dropped our packs, and began setting up the new tent. Thankfully, we already set it up once at home because it's much different than any tent I've setup before. It took us about 15 minutes from start to finish which wasn't that bad. Once inside, we were completely blocked from the elements. It was considerably warmer inside the tent than it was outside. This is exactly what I wanted and I was very happy with the purchase. The wind blew hard most of the night and the tent was bomb-proof. Completely solid. We read for a bit then made some dinner. I mistakenly brought noodle bowls which required microwaves, not just boiling water. Needless to say, it was disgusting. It was all we could do to choke it down, knowing we needed the calories. By 10pm, we were ready for bed. While the tent was absolutely rock solid, the slightly uneven ground caused us to slide to the bottom of the tent throughout the night. We decided the night before that sleeping in would be the best choice (realizing that the summit would not happen due to the incoming poor weather). Usually on a summit day we are on the trail much earlier than this.
The tent looked just beautiful at night!
We woke up at 730am, talked for a bit about the plan for the day, cooked up some tasty oatmeal, then prepared for the day. I received an awesome .gpx file from another climber with a much safer, low avalanche danger route up. Using the Gaia GPS app on my phone and iPad we followed the .gpx path to ensure we were taking the safest route. The route is along a south facing aspect until around 11000 feet, then follows an east facing ridge up to 13400 feet. Because it's south facing, snowshoes were not needed because the snow was no more than 2 feet deep. We would hike for 10 minutes, then double check we were on the right path, then continue hiking. We watched as clouds rushed over our heads, but nothing serious was building. Numerous times I reminded my son that the goal today was to return to the car safely and that we could turnaround at any point. He was feeling great carrying his much lighter pack and wanted to continue climbing. At one of our rest stops he decided that 1145am would be the best time to turnaround. Later he would explain why.
This kid is an animal!
As we continued up the mountain we were occasionally blown over with heavy wind (the forecast called for 25-35 mph winds with gusts up to 90 mph so this was no surprise) but aside from this it was mostly sunny. I started to think that the forecasters were wrong and we should have started our day earlier with a chance at the summit. As we hiked, we came across a fantastic camp site at 10000 feet. We marked the spot on our map and decided that we would setup camp on this site on our next attempt. We continued our climb and stopped promptly at 1145am at 10800 feet. We dropped our packs, enjoyed the rest of our pizza from the night before, and my son practiced his avalanche beacon skills as we rested. As a side note, the avalanche forecast was moderate above tree line but I made sure that we were prepared for anything so we each carried an avalanche beacon, a shovel, and avalanche probe. As we sat and talked the weather continued to be sunny with strong gusts of wind. I knew it was time to head down but wondered, what if we would have continued. I asked my son why he chose 1145am and his answer showed his respect for the mountain. He said he remembered the storm was moving in at 1200pm so this would give us time to eat, then head down to camp before snow really started to accumulate. He also said that it wasn't worth the risk but that he knew we would be back another day to finish what we started when the weather was better. Proud father moment.
Practicing his skills with the avalanche beacon.
As we hiked back down we were three times as fast as we were climbing. We made it to the camp in great time, quickly packed up the tent and headed down to the trailhead. We were back down to the car around 200pm and ready to head home. We snapped a quick picture at the trailhead before packing up the car. As always after a climb we ate some tasty, greasy burgers and fries. As we sat enjoying our feast in Salida we looked back at Shavano and were surprised to see that the mountain was completely engulfed in wintry clouds, the storm hit. Thankfully we were off the mountain and safely on our drive home. One of those times I am grateful that we did not push it but respected the mountain. I read once that nobody can truly conquer a mountain. The mountain allows you to climb it and if everything works out, you reach the summit. On this trip, the weather was not going to allow us to summit. Rest assured we will be back, climbing the same route with the hope of making it not only to the summit, but back to the car in safety.
Ready to head home.
Mt. Shavano is in there somewhere.
