Antero trailhead?

[Mountain Ninja]

Looking to possibly do Antero on Thursday, and I'm wondering about conditions of either TH: Browns Creek and/or Baldwin Gulch?

Any chance of getting up higher than the lower TH for Baldwin Gulch, or getting to the Browns Creek TH? (I drive an XTerra, but don't have chains for the tires or anything that snazzy)

Avy conditions of these?



I realize it's been snowing quite a bit, and Thursday will be the first "nice" day in a little while...

[tmathews]

Carl posted a conditions report for Antero on 4/16. I doubt the TH status has changed since then.

http://14ers.com/php14ers/peakstatus_en ... recnum=200

[Chicago Transplant]

The lower shelf section of the Baldwin Gulch road is north facing, and also narrow with not many options for parking or turning around. This time of year its best to park at the bottom and walk up it, otherwise you will likely be backing down it when you hit the snowline (speaking from experience on that one, and it was good to have a spotter so I didn't run off the road!).

The good news is above treeline there are several gullies filled with snow this time of year and you can cut the switchbacks on the road using them. They aren't that steep, but probably would be steep enough to slide under the right conditions. Snow conditions vary from year to year (day to day really) and I can't say if they are in good shape or not now, but they were good in April 2006

The bigger avy threat is actually above the road on Boulder Mtn near the summer trailhead, not much option to avoid crossing under it. I remember reading someones TR once where in the morning they passed under it no problem, but in the afternoon they had to cross fresh slide debris from it wet-sliding sometime during their Antero climb.

I went up the 13er behind Princeton via Grouse Canyon last Saturday. That TH is dry and so is the trail for the first mile or so to 10k (devoid of winter snow anyway, some new fell during my hike of course), then patchy for the next 1/2 mile. I veered off towards the other peak at that point, and had more consistent snow coverage from 10,500 to treeline. That is all south facing though while Baldwin Gulch is north facing. Too bad it was snowing, otherwise I may have had a glimpse of the route up Antero...