Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-31, By: van_w Info: No snow until a quarter mile past the 4wd TH. A few downed trees in the next quarter mile after that. We took a snow gully up to cut the switchbacking road (standard route). Microspikes and axe were sufficient for this. Then hit last switchback and traversed on the road to another snow gully to get to the 13,800 ft knob. Ridgeline to summit was snowy. Could be dangerous late in they day when snow is warm. Summit had some snow drift and dry ground on top. Go and get it! |
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Route: Gully Posted On: 2023-05-28, By: Zleisure Info: Started at 4:50am from 2WD/start of 277. 4WD road driveable until ~11,000, just past the 278 split off/stream crossing. After that there are multiple trees down and still deep snow. 11,000-11,600' is mix snow and gravel on the road. Snow was supportive with snowshoes in the morning, but slushy and postholing in sections in the early afternoon. At 11,600' took the gully up until the last road crossing (~12,800), then continued up hugging the NW rib (left side looking up). Traction required for the gully. I used snowshoes, others had spikes. You'll want to hug that rib until ~13,200' where you'll see a snow covered path connect to the saddle. That road snow is solid. I switched to spikes at the saddle until the peak. Summited ~9:45am. Back to car ~1:15pm. Summary: Gully is the way to go. Bring spikes and possibly snowshoes if you want to avoid some postholing. |
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Route: Custom Posted On: 2023-04-10, By: Shiffdog Info: Our plan for the day was to skin up the 4x4 road from parking lot, all the way to the summit, and then to descend the same way on our splitboards. This was not how our day went. We left the car around 7am, and for the whole approach, skinning proved to be very effective. There was a somewhat established track, and good snow coverage. Unfortunately, when we came above tree line (about 12000), we realized we could not continue on the road. Looking up the mountain, we saw that it was filled in with snow to the point where it was too off-camber to be safe. Next to where the road began switch backing, there was a gully that was filled with snow. We decided to skin straight up this gully. We got most of the way up until it became too steep and rocky to skin. We then stashed our split-boards, and continued on foot. It was a tough decision to leave our boards behind, but ultimately it was the right one. After gaining the ridge, we saw the false summit, and then finally, the real summit. It looked far away, but after a little more time on the rocky, snowy ridge, we made it. At 2pm, we were on the summit. After finally making our way back down to our splitboards, we cruised back to the car (with only a few short uphills to hike). Overall, the day had a mix of type 1 and type 2 fun. The main takeway is: if you're going to splitboard or ski this mountain, bring some hiking shoes with you. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-03-19, By: shapovalovm Info: tl;dr: Be ready to break trail until 11900 and then deal with a lot of snow-covered loose rock that will destroy your calves. Attached some pics. 9400 (TH) - 10270: visible trench with some fresh snow. The base is packed so no postholing. Wore microspikes. 10270 - 10900 (Baldwin Lake): no trench or trail visible, other than a tiny dent in the snow. Broke trail in microspikes (maybe ankle-calf deep), but any half-step in the wrong direction meant thigh/waist deep postholing. On the way back wore snowshoes to leave a better trench. 10900-11900 (W Rib): no trehcn/trail visible *at all*, trenched in snowshoes. Still some really deep postholing, but not too often. Stashed snowshoes there and continued in spikes. 11900-13800: a lot of loose rock covered with snow, also very steep. You make a step and rely on your luck to not dislodge a bunch of rocks. Probably the worst hike for my calves in years. You can probably go directly to the saddle and avoid climbing 13800, but the road there had a ton of snow so I figured I'd rather climb up and down than posthole again. The ridge to the summit: the first half is rocky ups and downs that are hard to avoid due to a ton of snow. Drains energy. The 2nd half is an easy way up (still with some loose undersnow rocks). I tried to leave a trench, but given I was solo, don't expect a highway. Chances are it's going to be gone after mid-week snow too. Any steps above the treeline are probably gone already. The road to TH is accessible by any car. 9am-7pm car-to-car. Haven't seen a single person that day. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow in Colorado mountains before, the views are fantastic. Despite all the hardship, I'm pretty sure this is the best way to do Antero. Way better than just walking the road. Such a fun day! |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-25, By: Maricopa Mountaineer Info: Starting from the 2WD trailhead expect about 3.7mi of gradual incline on the mining road. The snow in the first 2 mi or so was easy enough to walk in but I highly recommend snowshoes as I was still sinking slightly. The last 1.5ish mi to get get above treeline consisted of ankle to knee deep snow due to the recent snow dump but currently that is no longer an issue as an established trench has been made. Once above tree-line, I decided to ascend up to the 13er (pt 13800) directly based on previous trip reports. It's short, simple and you get all the gain out of the way, about 2100ft in .9mi, however expect crappy snow blown scree for most of it. The ridge connecting the 13er to Antero looks daunting but is pleasantly simple, you can start out on the east side and then gain ridge proper for the final ascent. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-20, By: laddymac Info: Recent snow and blowing winds have reset the standard route to deep snow status. Our group of six encountered fresh snow, 12" at trail head, increasing to 18" at 11k and drifts as deep as 36" at 12K. Even snow shoes couldn't prevent post-holing to a degree. Above tree line blowing and drifts have created a mix of deep snow punctuated by windswept bare spots. Snow shoes highly recommended and the bigger the better. Crampons and micro spikes helpful above tree line. Our group did stomp down the trail a bit but the wind was so persistent that anything above 11k was almost filled in immediately. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-12, By: lukedog Info: Just sharing all the stuff I was wondering about before I hit Antero on Saturday. Big thanks to astranko for the previous conditions report and for the extra info. And, nice meeting a bunch of other crazies out on the route. Lots of nice people. I planned to camp the night before, with sleeping in my car as a backup. The pervasive plowed berms edging the road and signs saying no camping discouraged camping sufficiently but I did sleep in my car in one of the plowed out turnouts a few minutes drive west of the 277 road. I didn't have any problems. The clearing at the 277 road is clearly visible from 162, but no 277 sign is visible from the road. It is just after a large pullout/parking spot and the sign is visible about 20 yards behind that clearing. If I could do it again, I'd do microspikes from the start until the 278 turn, then switch to snowshoes until the main rib/steep rock pile slope where the climbing starts. A moderate amount of postholing between the 278 turn and that spot took a lot out of me, especially the second half. I did all of that in just boots - it was fine but a little loose until 278 and about the same for the next half mile but increasingly post-holey after that. On the return, I put on snowshoes the whole way down, starting at the bottom of the steep stuff. The winter route is actually quite easy to follow - the trenched trail ends at a rocky rib and that's the way, straight up. It is a sucky, rocky, annoying route with ankle-breaker rocks almost the whole way to the ridge, and it is quite steep. That said, a number of parties on the day experimented with the summer road/route and other various shortcuts and all regretted it. Best route (as emphasized by the two ladies I met on the ridge) is going straight up to point 13,800. It doesn't look like a very direct way to the summit, but that's your best bet. It is essentially straight up to point 13,800. Same on the way down. Avoid all of the tempting corner cuts. You'll wish you didn't do it. From 13,800 to the summit is straightforward. The mix of good rock and unpredictable snow makes it a little tricky. Views from the summit are extraordinary. It was a burly day for me. I've done Antero in the summer and am thinking about climbing the 14ers twice, so I decided it would be better than climbing it again in summer. I was right, I'll now remember Antero for giving me all I could handle on this day, despite the weather being "good." Hats off to Antero and to all the others out there on this wintry day. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-12, By: jbealer Info: We brought snowshoes per the last report, but tracks were solid enough we never put them on. We did use spikes. The lower section of the road has a huge ice field across it and its pretty slick, be careful. We took the ridge all the way to the 13er, heard that road cut off was not great and was eaiser to just keep going up. Great conditions today, 7 of us summited, 5 solo guys, and 2 of us ladies. GPS image, do not go blue, stay on ridge to 13k |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-06, By: astranko Info: Trench is in all the way till the snow stops. Boots till ~10.9k, snowshoes to ~11.8k. We took the first rib to the sub-summit, then on our way down tagged onto a new(?) mining road that circled from the 13.7k saddle back to our tracks at 13.2k. There was one section on the road that if it filled in with too much snow would be an avalanche hazard. We crossed it one at a time on a mixture of rocks and deep snow. Very good conditions right now! |
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Route: TGR Posted On: 2023-01-09, By: Skimo95 Info: Trench is in to treeline, wind is blowing it in above. Took the gully to ridge and ended up around 11mi 4,800' 6-7 hours. Solid snowpack down low but variable as can be up high. Snowshoes to the ridge, booted to summit, spikes down. Gusts of 50+mph today made it interesting |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-17, By: ballardwf04 Info: Trail is almost entirely snow-free, barring some morning ice after Baldwin Creek. Clouds were blanketing the basin until around 13,000 feet, leading to some gorgeous views on a mountain that is not particularly beautiful (see attached). We had the mountain to ourselves on the way up, but saw a couple off-roaders on the way down and some backpackers close to the trailhead. Long day, but a good one to knock out and a special late fall experience. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-20, By: Barnold41 Info: Road has summer conditions all the way up. Ridge is also clear. Might not be the same after the weekend. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-10, By: ChossyChimayo Info: Road and trail to summit are entirely snow-free. Good time to check off an otherwise nondescript route. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-08, By: jonesva34 Info: Started at 8:00am on a Saturday. On foot from the very bottom, Baldwin gulch TR. Only crossed two jeeps coming down very early on and nothing else on the way up. There were 5 jeeps parked at 13k feet on my way down and then one more Jeep coming up after that. Aside from the Jeep party at 13k ft, saw less than 10 people all day. No snow to speak of on the route. Clean and dry. Greg peak, but the hike is a real pain in the ass. Loose rock/scree nearly the whole way down on the road. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-09-19, By: samfarmer789 Info: Antero is in great condition, no snow or anything. Was super windy up on the ridge. I went from the lower TH and clocked 15.14 miles, and 4694ft of elevation gain- so not as bad as I was expecting. Was super pretty with the Aspens turning yellow!! |
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Route: Little Brown Creek Posted On: 2022-07-20, By: olgav100 Info: Epic Wednesday, Antero via Little Brown Creek. Why this route is not a standard (and not even described in 14ers.com) is beyond me. Thankfully I knew about it from Sawatch race a year ago! Not a single person all morning. The trail is fantastic, the 4WD road bit from there is annoying yet very tiny (imagine most walk it all the way up!), and the rock field of the last pitch is so short, and much sturdier than Princeton! Winning combination on all counts. Ran away from storms, as always perfect timing! Pays to wake up at 3 am. Lovely time by myself! Unless you intend to drive most (or some) of that road up, please consider taking this trail from Browns Creek TH! I clocked 7.8M to the top (15.6 miles round trip), which is the same distance as from the Lower Parking Lot. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-07-17, By: MaryinColorado Info: Summer conditions, nothing notable about the hike past 12K. But how about that road, eh?? I posted a trailhead update to elaborate, but as someone with decent off-roading skills, let me just say the road up to 12K is a lot worse than my research led me to expect, and my significant other said it was a lot worse than he remembered, as well. (The road was new to me.) Would NOT recommend an attempt to drive to 12K unless you have both a capable vehicle (4WD + 10"+ clearance) AND really good nav skills. Whole road from bottom to 12K consistently presented plenty of opportunities for character building the whole way. It was just two of us Jeeps parked at 12K. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-07-09, By: Mitsugi Info: 100% Summer conditions. To be honest, if it weren't for this mountain largely being drivable this would be a miserably boring and long hike. It's basically a road for 90% of the hike. Pretty much a D tier 14er. Get a friend with a jeep to take you up to about 13,800 and then the rest is about 60 minutes round trip on foot. Much more fun day that way. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-07-09, By: taylorharris50 Info: Antero was a lot better than expected. Awesome 4WD drive up and had no issues getting up there in a 4Runner (TRD Pro). Parking / camping was easy near 12,000'. Traffic was pretty bad trying to drive down around 9:30 AM. Would recommend starting very early on the weekend. |
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Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2022-06-21, By: barnsy12 Info: Summer conditions totally free of snow. Was able to park at 12k ft and could have driven higher. |