Mount Shavano is the 17th highest peak in Colorado at 14,229 feet.

Located just outside Salida, in the south-central part of the Sawatch Range, north of Mount Ouray and Mount Chipeta, and south of the Collegiate Peaks (Mount Princeton, Mount Harvard, and Mount Yale), lies Mt Shavano.

Climbing Mt Shavano

Most bizarre trailhead ever (9750 ft) – there were cows everywhere.

Greg says, “Don’t worry, just walk, cows won’t hurt you.” 500 ft later, he stops. A huge black cow was blocking the trail. I said, “So do we have to do that bear thing and not look at the cow?”

After he explained the difference between a bull and a cow to me, we waited, the bull got bored, and we moved on.

The next couple of hours were a nice climb through the forest facing the northeast with blue skies and complete solitude.

Don’t keep going in a thunderstorm

At top of the tree line about 12,000 ft, we turned around and saw (and soon heard) the storm coming behind us.

Never get caught in a thunderstorm on a mountain, especially above the tree line – you are the tallest object around, otherwise known as a lightning rod.

So, we turned back (grrrrr). It started raining on us about halfway down.

Missed a double 14er summit but, we weren’t toast and it was a nice couple of hours of climbing.

Next time…

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