With the 9-80 schedule back in effect at the Lab, and Monday being a holiday, this was my first 4-day weekend in a long time. I wanted to do some mountaineering but the weather was looking like only one or two days would be worth it. So I drove up to Colorado on Friday night and camped near the base of Mount Shavano.

I was really late leaving home (10pm), so I didn't arrive until 2am, and as a result I slept in to the relatively late hour of 7:30am. The weather was perfect, however, so the late start didn't put me at risk. There were six people ahead of me on the trail, all of whom passed me while I was still making my way up. I made good time as far up as the saddle, but was really dragging ass beyond there. At the summit of Shavano I took a bunch of pictures and drained the batteries in the camera, only to find that I had neglected to put the spares in my pack. There's a gallery of the pictures I did get available by clicking on the above image.

Everyone had passed me going down by the time I made it to the summit, so I had the place to myself. I left my pack on Shavano and made the "quick" one-mile journey over to Tabeguache with just a bottle of poweraid. By the time I got back to Shavano I felt like I had been beaten with a bat and was really worked, so I took a nap at the summit for an hour. If you can believe this, I woke up becuase a vulture landed near me. I guess 5,500' of vertical was enough to make me nap like I was dead.

Imagine, if you will, a staircase a mile high. Climb that, and then walk an additional 10 miles, and you'll have an idea of how I felt. Oh and then climb back down. So I chose this hike because it had a ton of vertical. I wanted something that would allow me to test the limits of my inhaler-enhanced capabilities. Usually it's my lungs that prevent me from making further progress on a climb. With the inhaler, it was definitely my legs. I just wore them out. And that happened long before I made it back up to Shavano from Tabeguache. The thought of 4,500' of descent was not pleasant.

But the descent was reasonably straightforward. It's class 2 trail all the way and I had my shock-absorbing trekking poles. I made it down in three hours. Drove to Alamosa for the traditional post-mountaineering steak dinner at True Grit, only to find that they were experiencing rush hour and wouldn't seat a table of one. Fuckers... I ate a Burger King. At least there I didn't have to wait half an hour for my food—I was starving.

Anyway, successfully climbed Shav & Tab, fourteeners #16 and #17 for me. Could see North Carbonate from the summit of each, which is humorous. This was the most vertical gain I've ever done in a day by over 1,000'.