Mt. Antero

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 3/24/2025, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh
Info: Long day. Had snowshoes and microspikes for the road going up to treeline. Once at treeline, ended up climbing the main west gully to the highest switchback where I reconnected with the main route, following the road to its endpoint around 13,700'. From there followed the ridge direct to the summit, with only a few sections of postholing in the rocky sections where I veered off on the east side. Beautiful sunset views on the way down. Roundtrip 15.5 miles with 5,200' elevation gain. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 2/22/2025, By: GreatGlissader
Info: Heads up, this gulch (I'm sure other gulches too) can get cold. Started at 14 degrees at the TH, then at the road junction around 10.9k my thermometer read -20 degrees F around 7am. Seems like this happens on calm days. This happened last year too. Also, big ice patch on the road about .5 miles up. It's the whole width for about 10 feet, unavoidable. so bring something for that. 

Route: West Rib
Posted On: 1/17/2025, By: Chipmunk
Info: Took advantage of the nice weather yesterday to tag a winter summit of Antero! There were myriad foot, snowshoe, skin, XC ski, and even tire tracks up the first 0.1 miles of road to the big ice patch. The ice is not as solid as it looks - my foot punched through in the morning. The foolhardy vehicle backed down from there and other tracks slowly dissipated over the next mile until all that remained was the skin track of the person in front of me. Snowshoes went on at 0.8 miles. I tried to be courteous and broke my own trench until the snow became too deep, then merged into the skin track. Snow coverage on the road was good with only a few open spots. It was chillier where the road approached Baldwin Creek, and I got some white mascara and frosted tips that were last cool in the 90s. Ditched snowshoes at the base of the west rib and hiked up on snow and talus. Added microspikes at 12.8k. The skier skinned up the gully to the south of the rib. I am guessing they used ski crampons. We both cut the corner using an old mining road to the start of the summit ridge scramble. I stayed mostly on or to the right (east) of the ridge, a little class 3. More talus hopping directly to the summit. A summit descent is not quite in yet, but the skier made some turns down to the east, booted back up to the ridge, then skied down the mining road and dropped into the gully north of the rib I ascended/descended. We never actually crossed paths all day, but their turns down the gully looked quite nice! I left spikes on all the way back to my snowshoes, and snowshoes all the way to the car. 11.13 miles, 4,879 feet. 4:25 to summit, 2:30 back to car. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 1/9/2025, By: elevatedtv
Info: Shout out to Headsizeburrito for the conditions update, inspired me to make the most of a weather window. Decent trench from TH to treeline, flotation still required. West Slopes are still a grind with pockets of wind loaded snow, esp. North and East aspects, but generally ankle-deep or less. Ridge had deep pockets of powder, sticking to rock is the move. 

Route: West slopes (winter variation)
Posted On: 1/3/2025, By: headsizeburrito
Info: Successful summit, took the same route as supranihilest in the report posted 01/15/2020 in case anyone is looking for a handy .gpx file. CR162 was plowed to the trailhead, although the pullout hadn't been plowed and had several inches of snow, not an issue. There was a faint but helpful trench up CR277 that looked to be a couple days old with about 3 inches of fresh snow on top, I wore snowshoes from the start and repacked it. The faint old trench disappeared at the 277/278 junction when you cross Baldwin Creek (which was an easy crossing, it's pretty well bridged with snow). From here the snow was softer and deeper, typically ankle to mid-calf. Approaching treeline I occasionally ended up knee deep, but fortunately these were fairly limited. Stashed snowshoes at treeline. Booted all the way up to the sub peak with the random mining stuff. The summit ridge is actually a little tricky here. I also put on microspikes. The wind loading on the eastern slope of the ridge made me nervous so I stayed ridge direct as much as possible on the rocks, which means class 2 and a little easy class 3 scrambling. Fortunately this section is fairly short, as the ridge gets steeper it's back to talus and it's easy to stay ridge direct on dry ground, or on the boundary between dry and a trivial bit of snow. After getting back through the slightly tricky bit of ridge I kept my spikes on all the way down to treeline, which was helpful because it's quite steep and there is just enough snow to slip on when descending. Snowshoes back on at treeline all the way to the car. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 11/2/2024, By: josephsiefers
Info: Only went to the river crossing at 10,800. Full on winter conditions. Road was quite icy in spots. Might be drier above treeline. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 10/12/2024, By: leesnj
Info: Small amounts of ice present on the mine roads (due to the streams freezing overnight). The summit and summit ridge is completely dry. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 10/8/2024, By: NativeTransplant
Info: 100% dry with no snow or ice. Stock tacoma made it to 12k easily and could probably make it to 13k if you want to shorten it even more 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/29/2024, By: AndrewBV22
Info: Traditional route ascent today. Streams were passable and easy by foot and the route was clear of snow and was relatively dry. 

Route: Little Brown's Creek
Posted On: 9/16/2024, By: BricART
Info: The snow from the previous days had not stuck to any part of the trail in any significant amount. Great route and I'm glad I did that instead of slogging up the standard road. 

Route: Little Brown Creek
Posted On: 8/24/2024, By: Troyister
Info: Hike up Little Brown Creek to the saddle between White Mt. and Antero then the Jeep trails to the ridge and scrambled up. The trailhead has room for about 30 car, with a pit toilet, and was easy to get to with my Honda Accord. At 1.4 miles go north (right) onto the CT trail for a 1/4 mile then left back onto Little Brown Creek Trail. It is all marked well. Round trip was 16.3 miles and about 5800 feet of elevation gain. I liked this better than a full Jeep trail hike. The trail is easy to follow and in good shape. There are numerous opportunities to filter water between 2.7 and 5.5 miles from the trailhead as the creek runs close to the trail. There were numerous camping spots also if one wanted to backpack in. I passed 3 or 4 backing groups heading up on my way down. A great alternate over the primary route. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 8/18/2024, By: matt9094
Info: Beautiful day today. The trail is a 4WD Jeep trail all the way to 13,700. There are numerous water crossings (nothing more than a couple inches). Some parts of the trail have streaming water running down, but nothing you can't drive or walk over. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 8/12/2024, By: bparham
Info: Road up was muddy due to large amount of rain the day before. Otherwise clear and easy to hike. Took 4x4 vehicle up past tree line then hiked from there. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/23/2024, By: hsiegel3
Info: Beautiful day. We did it from the bottom. It is quite a hike. We could have made it up the road in my Honda Pilot. We had far too many jeeps on road which is why I have waited to do it. The last bit is the best since it is a hiking trail. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/16/2024, By: ColoNativeGal
Info: Like the other reports, summer conditions. I would say the snow patch as you transition to the ridge is melting fast and has some ice early in the morning. No traction needed, just careful foot placements. Took the direct line on the ridge to the summit, it was pretty simple to follow. Saw a couple Jeeps make it all the way to the top. I greatly appreciated the friendliness of the 4wheeler crowd, one group even offered a water bowl for my dog.