Tabeguache (14,155) 5-19-2007

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 05-21-2007, 09:21 PM

Tabeguache (14,155) 5-19-2007
goldenboy, Ivana Huckalot, mbsc

After seeing the looks of the north side of Tabeguache from Antero we knew it was looking prime so we decided to go after it this weekend.

We also knew it would be a slog... The North Face of Tabeguache is accessable from Brown's Creek TH which is at 8,960 ft. This makes for a 14 mile day with about 5,200 vert of climbing.

According to 14ers.com, Tabeguache is also called Mogwatavungwantsingwu (yeah, go ahead and try to pronounce that one!). Tabeguache is short for this, which was the name of a Ute tribe. Mogwatavungwantsingwu means "cedar-bark sun-slope people."

We camped the night before near the Brown's Creek TH and began hiking at 3:30 am. With the darkness of the night we got a bit confused at some of the trail intersections so that took a bit of time.

But finally dawn arrived. And we continued up the trail.

We hiked in our shoes, since the trail was largely dry. Around 10,500 there were patches of snow, but not enough to warrant putting on skins or even our ski boots.

It's about 5.5 miles to Brown's Lake, and it took us about 3 hours to hike there. The lake was at about 11,000 feet.

Ivana Huckalot enjoying the morning lake views.

From the lake we could see Tabeguache, but we walked past the lake to obtain better views of our route. This pic shows our eventual routes.

But getting over there required us to cross Brown's Creek which was running pretty high. So, we scoped out the area and finally found a make-shift bridge to cross the creek.

The bridge led us to a climber's route marked with cairns. Through the trees and a bit above the trees skins would have been helpful. Goldenboy and I didn't have our skins so we suffered through a bit of postholing. But it didn't last very long, only about 20 minutes. After that we were easily booting over frozen snow. When we began to head up the gully we put on our crampons.

Ivana Huckalot near on a false summit.

A couple of hours later, there was the summit! We summited around 10:30 or 10:45 am.

From the summit we could get a great view of the N face of Shavano.

A close up shows that people were hanging out on the summit!

A look over toward Monarch Pass and Monarch Ski Area.

Goldenboy and me on the summit, getting ready to ski!

Finally it's time to ski! Goldenboy drops in and shreds it

We found GREAT corn on this face around 11 am. Couldn't ask for better corn!

Ivana Huckalot's turn!

My turn! (Oh yeah, I opted to go back to my old blue pants b/c I knew the trail would be muddy! No pink pants this time!)

At the end of the couloir we began to go down the valley to find where we originally had crossed the stream.

..... (more below!)

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 05-21-2007, 09:22 PM

But we missed the place where we'd crossed the creek before, and went a bit too far down the valley. We opted for this log instead.

And then decided to spend some time relaxing by the lake, soaking our sore feet in the cold water.

Goldenboy likes his feet

Then it was onward. We still had 5.5 miles and over 2,000 ft to go down.

Around 1 pm we got hammered with thunder, lightning, and huge graupel falling. It lasted for nearly an hour. But we were well within treeline, so it wasn't so much of a worry, until we got to icy bridge crossings like this:

The graupel accumilated some on the trail.

We arrived back to the parking lot around 3:15 pm, so just short of a 12 hour day. The skiing, however, was most certainly worth the slog!

Thanks to goldenboy and Ivana Huckalot for a great day out there!

**Kya** · 05-21-2007, 09:31 PM

Slayed that shit...the slog too!

**Pow4Brains** · 05-21-2007, 09:41 PM

Stoke machines!!

**Mofro261** · 05-21-2007, 09:52 PM

Damn are you guys (and gal) bringing it!

This photo rocks:

Thanks for making me smile.

**goldenboy** · 05-21-2007, 09:57 PM

Without a doubt, one of the more high quality faces in the Sawatch. The only drawback, of course, is the slog, but it is a really beautiful valley, so that helps.

Thanks for doing the TR, mbsc!

**Tri-Ungulate** · 05-21-2007, 09:58 PM

I'm running out of superlatives with this overload of high quality TRs all of a sudden.

**ski_faster** · 05-21-2007, 10:03 PM

With all these great trip reports lately. It's making me really want to go climb and ski something big.

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 05-21-2007, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by ski_faster

With all these great trip reports lately. It's making me really want to go climb and ski something big.

Ski faster you shaved your legs too early! Didn't you know it's still ski season??? Bike season is still WEEKS away!!!!

**jcwhite** · 05-21-2007, 10:19 PM

Way to get another one done, you had better luck than I did this weekend for damn sure!

**FiveLarge** · 05-21-2007, 10:22 PM

Sweet. That corn looks PRIME.

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 05-21-2007, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by jcwhite

Way to get another one done, you had better luck than I did this weekend for damn sure!

Yeah, I heard about that and that's such a bummer! Better luck next time. There's still a lot of snow! Let's get after it again soon!

**marshalolson** · 05-21-2007, 10:26 PM

NICE! looks great up there!

**goldenboy** · 05-21-2007, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by mtnbikerskierchick

Ski faster you shaved your legs too early! Didn't you know it's still ski season??? Bike season is still WEEKS away!!!!

I beg to differ. I officially opened bike season today- my butt will confirm this!

**powdork** · 05-21-2007, 10:44 PM

Great TR, again.

edit, I replied to the above thinking it was mbsc that wrote it. my bad. way my bad.

**KillingCokes** · 05-21-2007, 11:25 PM

Nice looking trip. Tabeguache is such a cool mountain. I like the lake pics. Any flies buzzing around near the lake (fishing related question). One of my favorite things is bringing the fly rod along and catching dinner on the way back to the car. mmmmm fresh trout rocks.

**JoeStrummer** · 05-22-2007, 07:20 AM

Looks like a nice lake for base camp. Were there any good sites?

Nice TR!

**bcrider** · 05-22-2007, 08:20 AM

Nice silky goodness!

**Huckwheat** · 05-22-2007, 08:45 AM

GB that is rad!! So what is the story behind that....you obviously were trying to get all that ski gear somewhere (Evans). I have a Bob, but have never used it for that.

Nice TR, btw mbsc!!!!

Originally Posted by goldenboy

**yodaottis** · 05-22-2007, 09:02 AM

Nice TR!!!

Question: can you ask your friend where he mounted those K2's? I have the same skis, but have not picked up bindings yet and not sure how far back I want the bindings.
Either way, awesome pictures. Jealous!

**smitchell333** · 05-22-2007, 09:07 AM

WORTHY!!!

Do you guys work or have any "normal life" obligations?

Originally Posted by goldenboy

I beg to differ. I officially opened bike season today- my butt will confirm this!

Do tell - Evans?

**Kellie** · 05-22-2007, 09:16 AM

Fabuloso!!!

**IridePow** · 05-22-2007, 09:21 AM

Nice TR!

And just keep that balance buddy:

Originally Posted by mtnbikerskierchick

**FrankZappa** · 05-22-2007, 09:28 AM

Very nice!

I wish I knew my back yard as well as you do... sigh. (or at least still had the uummmph to get up there)

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 05-22-2007, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by smitchell333

Do you guys work or have any "normal life" obligations?

Right now I have 2 jobs, one full time and one part time. Earlier in the season I had 2 part time jobs on top of my full time job. I have a mortgage to pay too. Skiing is important to me, it has always been important, and will continue to be an important aspect of my life. I make an effort to get out there whenever I can. The key to life is balance. Any free moment I have I'm on my bike or on my skis. That's just the way it is. There is always time to do the things you love to do. You just have to be good about balancing your time accordingly.

Originally Posted by JoeStrummer

Looks like a nice lake for base camp. Were there any good sites?

The lake is a GREAT place to camp and there are no shortage of sites. It's BEAUTIFUL spot. I wouldn't mind going back there just to camp!

Originally Posted by yodaottis

Question: can you ask your friend where he mounted those K2's? I have the same skis, but have not picked up bindings yet and not sure how far back I want the bindings.

Ivana Huckalot has the K2's. He checks TGR fairly regularly so you can PM him and ask him yourself!

Originally Posted by Huckwheat

GB that is rad!! So what is the story behind that....you obviously were trying to get all that ski gear somewhere (Evans). I have a Bob, but have never used it for that.

Yes, goldenboy skied Evans yesterday (Monday) in the morning. We were going to do it Sunday after Tabeguache, but after that long of a slog and getting back to the Front Range late, we were not highly motivated at 4 am when the alarm went off.

BTW, goldenboy said the Evans road was plowed for about 7 to 7.5 miles and it's 9 miles to Summit Lake. Evidently they will be trying to get the road open to Summit Lake this weekend, but nothing is guaranteed.