7/1/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 7/3/2023, By: eastmanerine Info: A bit of a rocky road but our 4WD Grand Jeep Cherokee did fine to get us to about 12,000 ft. Plenty of places to pull off and park in that area. No issue crossing the streams. Hiking trail completely dry now with the only snow off the main trail. If you have a good 4WD vehicle and can cut the hike distance down some, this is a great 14er for a kid or first time climber to tackle. Our 9 year old did it without trouble. |
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6/29/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/29/2023, By: mcosby Info: Route is basically fully dry. You dont have to touch any snow unless you really want to do so. Id recommend leaving the spikes and axe in the car for the 15 miles of road and 0.5 of tiny scramble. There is some water running over the road near the beginning. You can avoid getting wet via a few log options just up on the right. |
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6/25/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: StephRose Info: Trail is in pretty good shape! I parked and car camped at the lower TH and ran up and down. Started at 5:30am because I wanted daylight. The first creek crossing near the TH is flooded - theres a trio of logs a bit up to the right that made a crossing easy. When you turn left on 278, the road is also flooded. The rock-hopping option was a no-go in the morning as they were extremely slick, but had dried out on my way down (just ran through ~4-6 inches of water in the morning). The switchbacks had a few places to navigate around snow but it was super easy. Didnt even have to touch snow on the summit ridge. Wind was brutal on way up to summit, but the actual top was much more calm. |
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6/25/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: Elliegold Info: The road is drivable up until about 13,100' due to snow on the last couple switchbacks. Traction is not necessary. The excavator is off to the side as of today, the switchback after the CAT gets kind of sketchy with the snow on the banks cutting the size of the road to be very narrow. No problem getting up though in a lifted jeep. |
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6/24/2023 Route: Little Browns Creek Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: ztweb Info: Beautiful bluebird day, but with incredibly powerful wind. Trail was in great shape and almost completely free of snow. There were a few small snowfield crossings above 12,000, but I didnt need microspikes for any of them (same goes for an ice axe). The final ~400 below the summit had a decent amount of snow on the east side of the ridge, but if you stay on the west side, there is none. Great route if you don't want to walk on a road the entire time. |
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6/24/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: mmbakken Info: Creeks are flowing strong. Rocks to cross the creek 3mi in were icy/uncrossable in the AM, so be prepared to get wet if you have to cross it. Was fine in the PM. First creek crossing right by the start of 277 is bridged a little further upstream (2min walk). Snowfields are present and easily crossable without traction. Trekking poles were very helpful for snow and creek crossings. |
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6/24/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: Ryan987 Info: Drove up to the parking area at tree line (12000 ft). Road isn't bad if you have a good clearance 4x4. Saw a subie go up as I was leaving... wouldn't reccomend that but make your own judgement. Summer conditions with short slushy pits here and there above the gate. Didn't use my microspikes. The excavator has opened up the road further up and people should be able to drive up to the saddle area now |
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6/20/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: baileydvoss Info: There is a creek crossing about a tenth of a mile into the trail. Kept my feet dry by walking a couple hundred feet up the creek to a fallen log. The log gets a little wobbly as you get towards the center but is sturdy enough for anyone with decent balance. The next two creek crossings are pretty straight forward. No snow on the trail until about 13,500, but it wasn't an issue at all. Summit is mostly clear of snow. |
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6/19/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: JakeByk Info: Trail in great condition. Brought axe and spikes and used them to climb up a snowfield between switchbacks, and on the summit ridge but not necessary if you're careful. River crossing at 3 miles is very fast and deep, recommend sandals and poles. First 14er of the year with no postholing! |
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6/18/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/19/2023, By: troyflannigan Info: Drove up to the creek at 10,800 and parked about 50 yards past the creek, plenty of parking. Road is def 4WD and no snow. Started at 7:15am and crossed the damaged road as mentioned in previous post. Construction has begun but not passable. Some snow on lower switchbacks, a lot of snow on upper switchback and I used spikes. I would have turned around without spikes as did others, but I did see a few summit without. Last 300 ft climb was 40 degrees with winds 40+. On the way down, we took one too many switchbacks on the upper section and added 30 mins to our hike, keep an eye out for that on the way down. Beautiful hike down below 13k, 55 degrees and sunny. Maybe saw 25 or so others on the trial. |
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6/18/2023 Route: via Little Browns Creek Trail Posted On: 6/18/2023, By: Briere Info: Started at 5am; summit at 9:30am; back to TH at 1pm. Trail was mostly snow free; No flotation is needed and very minimal post-holing. No traction was required but I did use crampons since I brought them. 2 snow fields to cross but you can avoid them if you really want. The top was snow-covered on the right (will attach an image) but you can summit via the left side of the ridge and rock jump. I brought crampons so I went straight up on the right via the snow and that seemed to make my life easier. |
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6/12/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: Mt_DAN Info: Was able to drive to the road junction at 10,850 feet to start my hike. Road was snow free to 11,850 this morning. The miners are working on the road, so it might be clear to the end by Friday. Snow and ice remains on the trail. Traction and trekking poles might be handy if you go. |
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6/11/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: Logan5280 Info: Tagged both Antero and Cronin today. This is definitely the time of year to hike Antero since there isn't a crazy amount of snow, but just enough to keep vehicles from going high up. Started at 7 at the 2wd trailhead, and promptly fell into the stream at the 2nd major creek crossing; quite the way to kick off the day. The highest car I saw was just below the start of the switchbacks. I decided to climb the main gully, starting above the first switchback, in order to cut some mileage. There's decent coverage, but it might melt out in not too long. Microspikes necessary for the gully in the morning. After a few (mostly avoidable) snowfields, I reached the top of Antero around 9:50. From there, I was feeling pretty good, and weather was still holding, so I decided to go for Cronin from the SE ridge. I glissaded the little summit snowfield, which was fine but a little sloppy, then walked down to the road turn at 13.1k. From there, I walked along the endless, mostly dry rolling ridge of Cronin. I stashed my pack around 13.2k on the ridge and was able to do some mostly dry but loose talus hopping to the top, crossing 2-3 small snowfields. I tagged the summit around 11:30 and then descended towards Antero as the weather rolled in. The switchback gully made for a decent glissade, aside from a posthole that plunged my foot into a small under-snow river (notice a theme with this?). Easy walk down from there, arriving back at the trailhead around 2:15pm. My OnX line says that this linkup (accounting for the gully shortcut) was 16-17ish miles and 6.4k vert. |
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6/8/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/8/2023, By: out_there Info: Great day out after a not-insignificant snowfall last night. Probably 3-4 inches of new snow above 11,500, and wind blown deeper sections here and there. Especially on east facing aspects of the ridge and final summit push. Was fine with micro spikes, just rock hopped. On the section after the ridge I stayed left to avoid the deep windblown snow. I did take the gully shortcut on switchbacks that other users mentioned, but only on the way up due to firmness. On the way down the switchbacks I noticed at least 2 areas where a chunk of the mountainside had broken away in an avalanche and took part of the road with it. Was fine to cross but wont be passable to vehicles for a while. Road still impassable from roughly 1-1.5 mi past the primary creek crossing/split. The postholing on this area in particular was brutal around 9-10am just go around it. The previously mentioned trees have been cleared though. |
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6/6/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/6/2023, By: -wren- Info: Ended up using spikes/axe on one off camber snow crossing on the road and for the summit ridge, although you could probably get by fine without. Axe is overkill but I dont own trekking poles so I just used what I had. up to a couple hundred feet below treeline, road is passable by vehicle and if youre hiking it you could probably do it all without stepping on snow. Past treeline on the road theres some snow patches to contend with on foot, vehicles arent going to get much higher even in with very high clearance and 4wd. The summit ridge still has quite a bit of snow along the most obvious route, although you can switch to loose talus for portions of it if desired without a hassle. Starting around 4:30 and finishing at noon the snow was mostly supportive otw up and less so but still manageable otw down, postholed a good 30-40 steps or so total but not too bad. An obvious glissade path cuts through 3 or 4 switchbacks back to treeline but its melting fast, lots of sharks poking out. |