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The weather warmed up fiercely here in Utah during the second week of April, absolutely ruining the skiing. The powder turned to mashed potatos and it was not freezing at night, hence, no corn.
From the CAIC I could see that south facing slopes in the Sawatch were pretty tame if you were off them early and I had a few targets picked out. By the time I got everything ready there was a storm on the horizon for Sunday which meant I was on a short time schedule. I elected to drive the 7+ hours and get as close to the Shavano/ Tabeguache Trail head as possible and spend the night. After passing the 250/252 junction,The 250/252 junction
I drove another .7 miles before hitting snow that I could not get passed. The road blockage at 9000 ft.
This meant that I made it to the stream at 9000 feet and had an extra 2.6 mile hike each way. The stream crossing at 9000 feet
The stream had running water but it was muddy. As I was "car camping" that was not important. I started the next day about 6 am. I walked the first mile in trail runners and then switched to skis and skins on the frozen snow. As the sun came up I could see it was a blue bird day. The Shavano Trailhead
Things went well on the frozen snow through the woods up to 11,100 ft. The trail was, of course, covered with snow but two guys (jeffth5) had been up the day before and their track was easy to follow. The First look at the AngelA closer look at the Angel I was able to skin all the way to the summit on the rapidly softening snow. I met Nate from Boulder on top. We exchanged greetings, took some pictures and continued on our separate ways. Nelson on the Summit of Shavano
Nate was on his way to Tabeguache for a big day. View from the top
I headed back to the Angel for my ski run. I was probably an hour late skiing down but it went well down to 11,000 feet.
This was where things became very difficult. In the woods the snow was very soft and in many places unconsolidated. It meant post holing with the skis on (very difficult to get them out of the snow) and I went "over the handle bars" a couple of times when I tried to go faster. As tough as it was it did not take the luster off a spectacular spring ski day. I had covered 14 miles and 5500 vertical feet. I had done countless transitions between skinning, skiing and walking. I have come to realize that if I want to get out early in the season I am gong to have to walk farther, carry more stuff, travel will be slower (especially as things warm up) and there will be many more transitions. That's the deal.
After my 10 hour day I headed into Salida to my favorite restaurant, The Laughing Ladies, for a nice meal and a beer (maybe it was two?). Dinner It was time to decide what to do in the face of the rapidly approaching storm. With the insight that comes only after a couple of beers and a half bottle of wine, I decided to head to Alma and the South Slopes of Democrat.
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