Climbed Shavano and Tabeguache by the standard route from the Blank Gulch Trailhead. Donna, Jake and I left home at 03:30 and arrived at the trailhead at about 06:00. The directions to the trailhead in Roach's book were accurate; the road was bumpy but could probably be handled by a passenger car if driven carefully.

The weather was perfectly clear, and it looked like we would have a good day to make the traverse from Shavano to Tabeguache. We left the Jeep at 06:20 and started up the Colorado Trail to the north. After a quarter mile we turned left onto the well-signed Mount Shavano Trail. We saw the infamous sign put up by the Chaffee County Sheriff's Department warning climbers that this hike is a 12 hour round trip and not to descend McCoy Gulch. Apparently they've had to organize many rescues here. The 12 hour round trip time might be an exaggeration, but I suppose for people inexperienced enough not to look at a map and guidebook before attempting a 14er hike, it might not be an exaggeration.

The trail was mostly good through the forest. Donna and I took our 2-way radios and we separated once we reached the Shavano Trail. Here I should have known better and turned the radios on and checked them before separating. After heading up the trail a ways I turned on my radio and tried to say something to Donna about the trail. I didn't get a response, so I figured Donna hadn't turned her radio on yet. No big deal, I thought, and I continued up the trail. What I should have done was turn around and go back to Donna and make sure we could communicate. For some reason her radio was not able to transmit to me, but she could hear me. I haven't looked into it yet but I can't figure out why that would happen - these radios are pretty new and I just put new batteries in them.

Jake and I continued up the trail, past a babbling brook and across it. This was the nicest part of the trail. The trail passed below a talus slope covered in green lichen, then started switchbacking up the slope. I kept trying to contact Donna periodically, but got nothing. Eventually it occured to me that something must be going on with her radio, that maybe the channel switch got bumped or maybe I didn't put the batteries in right. I was hoping she would be able to correct the problem herself, or if not, I would meet her up on the summit of Shavano so we could descend together. I gave up on the radios and kept hiking up the trail. Around treeline the trail became steeper and didn't switchback much, it just went straight up the slope. It was also a very rocky trail; on the way down I was very unhappy with the trail but more on that later. I wasn't feeling as strong at this point as I had been on previous hikes, especially on Holy Cross, my last hike. I think the steeper trail combined with a lot of vertical was taking its toll, or maybe I was just not having a great hiking day. I still averaged around 1300'/hr on the way up to Shavano, but my legs felt tired for the last 1500' or so.

We made it to the broad saddle (13,330') between Shavano and Esprit Point at 08:55. From here the trail heads up Shavano's south ridge to the summit. There were a couple minor false summits, then Jake and I reached the top at 09:40. I made a quick check for a register and found none, so we continued down Shavano's northwest ridge toward the Shavano-Tabeguache saddle and up to Tabeguache. The saddle is .75 mi from Shavano and .25 mi from Tabeguache, and its elevation is 13,700'. The ridge down from Shavano is mostly stable talus and slabby rock. The ridge up to Tabeguache is loose talus and scree, but since it was shorter it wasn't too bad. We made the summit of Tabeguache at 10:25 and spent 10 minutes eating and signing the register before heading back down. A couple who had passed me on the ridge up to Shavano were on Tabeguache, and just before I left they told me that they had news from Donna that her radio wasn't working right: she could hear me but she couldn't transmit. When I heard that I radioed Donna and said I would be waiting for her on Shavano. I would wait until noon and then head down the trail to meet her if she didn't arrive.

At 11:15 we were on Shavano's summit again, and I found a sunny rock to relax on and dozed off a little. I was finally starting to get a second wind on the way back from Tabeguache, but my right knee was giving me a little pain on the descents to the saddle from Shavano and Tabeguache. The same knee hurt a little on the Holy Cross hike when I descended from Halfmoon Pass to the trailhead. At noon we headed down the south ridge toward the saddle and the trailhead. Just below the summit a group of five climbers saw me and said they talked to Donna earlier, she said she was turning around below the saddle. At least I knew where she was now, and she would most likely be at the Jeep when I returned. I headed down as quickly as I could but the steep rocky trail was wreaking havoc on my knees, both of them by now. In an hour I was at treeline. The descent had become painful and seemed to last forever. I wasn't happy with the trail as it is steep dirt on much of it, and covered with softball-sized rocks. This made it more difficult to keep my footing, which fatigued my legs and stressed out my knees even more. The beautiful weather that was still hanging around made it too hot, and I was reaching the end of my 3 quarts of water. A few hundred yards below treeline I saw a huge bighorn sheep ahead on the trail. Jake hadn't seen it yet so I called him to me and I waited until the sheep left the trail. Jake sniffed around when we got to that spot but he gave up and followed me as I passed him and kept on going.

We reached the brook again, and I sat down to rest and to encourage Jake to drink as much as he could. I splashed some water on my face, and that refreshed me somewhat. This was a very pleasant part of the trail; the ground was covered with soft bark and evergreen needles, the brook jumped and played on its way down the hill, and the shade from the trees covered the trail better. It's too bad the whole trail wasn't like this! At 13:55 we reached the Jeep, and Jake and I were both tired, hungry and thirsty. Donna was upset that I didn't come back to find her when we couldn't communicate on the radio. It's obvious to me now, but at the time I just thought Donna hadn't turned her radio on, and by the time I thought something might be wrong it would have been just as quick for me to continue up to the summits and meet her at Shavano on the way back down. Oh well, Murphy's Law rings true again: if something can go wrong, it will.

I've put a lot of thought into what went wrong on this hike and how to prevent it from happening again. For Donna and me the separate hiking works well because my pace is faster than hers. When we hiked together in the past Donna would try too hard to keep up with me and wear herself out too soon. It's also frustrating for me to hold back waiting for her to keep up. Our first separate hike (Massive) worked really well, so that's how we've been doing it ever since. The problems with hiking separately are that you miss the companionship and the safety net of having someone else around. Even with radio contact, on Mount Princeton I could not tell where she was when she tried to tell me. I think the ultimate solution here is to find Donna a hiking partner whose pace and ability level are about the same. We might try a short 3rd class route if we can get out before the snow falls, so we can have more fun doing a different kind of route together. Donna has her triathlon in Glenwood Springs on 9/9/01 (how is it that she can swim 1/2 mile, bike 15 miles then run 5 miles, but I'm half again as fast on 14er hikes when I don't exercise at all??), so the weekend after that maybe we'll try the East Ridge of Democrat or more likely, the Kelso Ridge on Torreys.