St. Mary's Glacier Hike/Ski

See PHOTOS from our adventure HERE
See a sort VIDEO from our adventure HERE or at end of post.

Yes, Hike and Ski! We got our turns in for July this past Saturday at St. Mary's Glacier. 10 consecutive months of skiing now, hoping to hit 20 at some point.

St. Mary's Glacier stays around all summer and is only about an hour drive from Denver. Once you get to the trail head, there is a short 3/4 mile hike up to the lake. On the far side of the lake, the bottom edge of the Glacier can be seen stretching up the hillside. We made our way around the lake and started up the snow towards the top. There were a few other people hiking up and one guy on skis just finished his descent as we climbed.


The weather was beautiful with blue skies and a bit of a breeze to keep you cool as you hiked. It did not take us long to make it to the top of the Glacier where we threw off our packs and hiked up a bit more over the ridge line to see what was on the other side. You could see the top of James Peak (13,294 ft.) in the distance.


After a quick snack, we strapped on our skis and headed down negotiating the variable and wavy snow conditions. As the snow melts during the summer, wave like patterns are created across the surface of the snow. Tricky to negotiate, especially on teles. But we enjoyed our turns in the dirty snow that was soft in areas and crusty in others. Towards the bottom we saw a large group of snowboarders headed up with rails, shovels and coolers in tow. It would be a great spot to hang out for the weekend and build some jumps. We finished with almost 900 vertical feet under our belts for the month of July.


As we headed down the trail back to the car, with our skis strapped to our packs, we got quite a few inquisitive looks and comments from tourists taking a short day hike to the lake with their kids and dogs.

"Did you go skiing!?", one man asked, "You guys are hardcore!", another women stated. Guess we are hardcore, but we just think of it as a nice walk in the mountains with the opportunity to enjoy where we live.

We are thinking we may head up there again for our August turns. It should still have some pretty good snow pack then as well.

Colorado Rocks!


See PHOTOS from our adventure HERE
See a sort VIDEO from our adventure HERE or below.

Ascent of Mt Shavano

See photos from our trip HERE
See a video compilation from our hike HERE

It's the start of hiking season again! So, on Saturday we headed South West to the Sawatch Range near Salida and Buena Vista, CO to hike Mt. Shavano (a) (14,229'). It's about a 3.5 hour drive with some great scenery ranging from suburbs, to farms and mountain passes to free range high altitude plains. The weather was a bit suspect, with thunderclouds rolling in and out of the mountains. As we drove into the Buena Vista valley, we could see the Collegiate Peaks in the Northernmost point of the Sawatch range across the plains. The clouds surrounding the peak of Mt. Shavano (b) did not look very inviting, but we hoped for the best and continued the drive along a dirt road to the trailhead.


After gearing up in the parking lot, we headed out on to the Colorado Trail for a short distance and then onto the Mt. Savano trail for about an hour hike (3/4 mi.) up some steep terrain to a perfect camping spot. We enjoyed a camp meal of Mountain House mac and cheese and a game of Farkel by the camp fire and then headed to bed.


Sunday started early, 4:30 a.m.! It was still dark as we ate a hearty oatmeal breakfast and packed up camp. We left our large packs at camp and headed up the mountain with day packs as the sun rose. The trail provided numerous great views of the Southern Sawatch range and the blue skies were very promising, however the weather in Colorado can turn on a dime at elevation, so we kept an eye out for incoming storms. We hit tree line at about 11,700' and could then see most of our trail up to the saddle, still covered with snow. Fortunately the snow was firm so we did not have to worry about the agony of postholing on our way up. There were about seven others behind us on the trail, but due to our campsite in on the trail and early rising, we were pretty much alone till we hit the summit.


The last climb off the saddle was a tough one, with a steep grade and deeper snow. As we hit the top, one other gentleman joined us. And soon seven others. Usually you can see anywhere from 40 to 60 or more people on the trail of a 14er, but due to the early season timing, we were able to enjoy the mostly solitude trip.


It took us four hours to ascend about 3,600'. The views from the top were amazing. I've been up here before, about six years ago. Mt. Shavano was my first 14er. This was Melissa's first time up Mt. Shavano, so she now has eight under her belt, while I stayed at nine (11 total ascents with two doubles). There are 54 14ers in Colorado, so we still have a ways to go.

There is an option of traversing along the ridge and down to another ridge that leads up to Tabeguache Peak (pronounced "tab-uh-wash," with the accent on the first syllable) at 14,155'. We pondered over heading that way to bag another peak, but the clouds were starting to grow in size and were very dark. Our decision to head back down was a good once, since it started to get socked in and hail as we hit tree line again.

The descent was uneventful besides the bit of hail, and we were glad to arrive back at camp. However, we now had to load back up with all our overnight gear and hike out the last mile. We hit the car with a total round trip time of seven hours and fourty five minutes, not bad for our first 14er of the season.

Which one will be next. Evans, Sherman, Lincoln? Keep your eyes on COAdventure.blogspot.com to see where we head to next!

Map of trail
See photos and video from our trip HERE
See a video compilation from our hike HERE