5/9/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 5/9/2018, By: Gdurheim Info: The TH info has not changed, big drifts that will be there for a while. The road up to the creek crossing is clear other than the drifts and a tree. After the crossing up to treeline has a lot more snow but all of it is solid early on and avoidable once it warms up. The first gully after treeline where the switchbacks start has good snow if you want to shorten the climb. Crampons to go up and iceaxe for the descent. The center gets very soft and deep once it warms up so stay to the sides. Above that the road is about half covered in snow, easily avoidable, the ridge is mostly clear as well. No flotation used and the only traction was for the gully climb. Beautiful day on the mountain! |
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4/22/2018 Route: Nothern Ridge Posted On: 4/23/2018, By: climbingcue Info: Snow was a bit soft, and we could have used more snow. It was super wet coming back down and much of the snow was almost gone for the last 1,000 desent. I would never try this route without snow. |
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4/15/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 4/15/2018, By: AppalachianAdam Info: Very similar conditions to Eagle Eye's CR two weeks ago. The road up to the creek crossing still has some nasty ice flows, but a few sections were dry. I wore spikes all the way to treeline. Snowshoes aren't totally necessary, but they were helpful from treeline back to the creek in the afternoon. I avoided the 4x4 road above treeline, which was still snow covered and stuck to the ridge. Looks like a few wind slabs have released on Cronin's east face. |
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4/1/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 4/3/2018, By: Eagle Eye Info: Starting from the 2WD Trailhead I found a packed trail to tree line. From there the zig-zagging road had soft snow and (usually) a rock border on its lower edge. The rocky part of the ridge from the end of the road (near Point 13,800) to the summit had quite a bit of powder below it. I stayed on the ridge crest which seems easier. Same thing higher up, I stayed on the more direct & rockier path for the last stretch to the summit. I wore micro spikes and stayed on snow almost the whole day. I just squeaked by without carrying snow shoes, the trade-off being some post holing^&%!#$ on the way out (late-day) as the snow softened. I didn't see anyone the whole day, but someone had walked up the 4WD road a short distance during the day. |
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3/11/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 3/12/2018, By: Giant hills Info: Started from the 2wd trailhead at Baldwin Gulch. Road is drivable only to this point dont try and drive up the road leading to antero someone did and didnt make it more that 500ft before backing out. Road has a great boot pack all the way to treeline. Big ice flows in the beginning of the road but dodgable. snow was less and harder packed before creek crossing. From creek crossing it became deeper until treeline. We didnt wear snow shoes in the morning on the ascent do to being cold and the snow was firm. We did wear snow shoes on the decent because it warmed up and softened and postholed a few time even in flotation. From treeline to summit we took the ridge that lead right to point 13,800 it was bone dry besides to occasional snow between rocks. From point 13,800 to summit the ridge had snow but once off the ridge it was dry to summit. Never wore any traction either. Also the 4wd road had snow on it all the way to its stopping point,but does look hikeable. None of the slopes it crosses were loaded or even really had snow on them. The whole mountain is pretty much dry. Great day and amazing weather out there. If anyone needs photos let me know, ill try to add some but it never seem to work for me. |
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3/10/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 3/11/2018, By: Cthulhu 2008 Info: Decent packed down trail to tree line. Took the gully up to the road to save on some mileage as conditions seemed very safe (not much snow). Wore spikes up to 13,600' or so, where it was windblown and mostly dry from there up to the summit. The ice floes down low are impressive. |
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2/25/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2/25/2018, By: bmcqueen Info: Road had a faint trench with a few new inches. Spikes were fine for that. I camped at the creek crossing last night, then climbed today. I wore my snowshoes from my camp to tree line as the faint trench was becoming less forgiving. Above treeline, I went up the rib that goes straight to Point 13,800 to avoid the avalanche slopes that the road crosses. The upper mountain was fairly wind blown - spikes were sufficient again above treeline. More info and pics in the Trip Report I wrote. |
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2/17/2018 Route: Raspberry Gulch Posted On: 2/17/2018, By: Yikes Info: Made it to 13,000 on the east ridge before turning around due to severe winds (it was a really nice day up to that point). The jet stream is blasting across Colorado this weekend. Gusts were easily 60mph+, knocking me down to the ground multiple times. Things are very dry, you can drive up 273 almost to the dead-end/TH. Snow wasn't an issue except for sections between 11,000 and 12,000 where I had to fight through thigh-deep sugar. Snowshoes didn't provide much flotation. Above treeline, the ridge was a nice grassy stroll, not much talus. |
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1/30/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 1/31/2018, By: Santanoni Info: Thanks to a crew attempting Cronin the path is well broken to 11500, and then I added in the last several hundred to tree line. The road above tree line is the only place with snow up there except deep in gullys and it stunk to walk along due to inconsistent texture/steep angle. I took the more northern gully part way up and all the way down and it was nice. The ice flows on the 4wd road are a sight to behold. |
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1/28/2018 Route: Raspberry Gulch Posted On: 1/29/2018, By: didjapelli Info: The road has a good 8-10 inches of new snow. We couldn't make it up in our 2wd vehicles so we left them off the dirt road, 273, and hiked up to TH. The snow was boothigh most of the way, but we didn't need microspikes or snowshoes, just gaiters. Once at the saddle, we turned to push up the woods and here the snow was anywhere from several inches to 10 inches to over two feet deep. Again just gaiters was fine. At 10000 feet the snow was powder, then at 11000 feet the snow was sugar and at 11500 feet and up to treeline at 12500 it was that clumpy snow great for making snowmen. We made a good trench up to treeline and once you come out of treeline the snow all but vanishes. We ditched our snowshoes and continued on. There is really no snow to speak of all the way to the peak. |
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1/14/2018 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 1/15/2018, By: cloudkicker Info: Mixed conditions on Antero this weekend. From the start of the Baldwin Gulch road, within the first mile there are several iceflows that are difficult to avoid and treacherous to cross. We managed to pass over them using microspikes on the way up, but on the way down they were much more slippery and we had to get very creative to bypass them. CRAMPONS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR THE FIRST MILE OF THIS ROAD. The remainder of the road to the Mount Antero junction (2.8 mi from start) contained light but continuous snow, not deep enough to post hole. From the trail junction to treeline the snow became deep enough to posthole to the thigh and it made for a bit of misery on the way down. From treeline onward, the snow thins out. There is enough along the shelf road that you'll want to keep traction on and watch your step through the exposed parts. Above 13,000ft there is hardly any snow. The summit ridge was simple enough to manuever, and the snow field between the last tower and the final stretch is meager. Note: the normal avalanche runouts along the shelf road weren't an issue when we climbed, due to lack of snow. The forecast for avy danger on the western aspects of the Sawatch peaks was zero (per CAIC). After another foot or two of snow accumulates there will probably be more avy danger on the route. |
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11/10/2017 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 11/10/2017, By: Thevirtualsherpa Info: Winter has arrived on Mt Antero. Hiked the west slopes from the lower trailhead today. Lots of snow, about 3-4 inches for first couple of miles, 5-7 until treeline and windblown pockets of 12+ above treeline. Final ridge is mostly dry with 3-4 inches along there as well. Very long and mentally taxing hike, wouldn't recommend in the winter unless skiing/boarding down. |
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10/27/2017 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 10/28/2017, By: NickJohnson Info: A fair portion of the 4WD road was covered in a hard, thick sheet of ice. It's possible to walk past it by keeping to the edges, but walking up the center is also possible with microspikes. Upper switchbacks still have a coating of hard snow on the north sides of the hills where the sun doesn't hit it. But other than that, everything was as dry as a bone. Views were great from the top! |
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10/25/2017 Route: East Ridge from Raspberry Gulch Posted On: 10/26/2017, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: Attempted the Raspberry Gulch route with a cool guy I met on here yesterday. I only got to 12,100 feet before deciding that I was too slow to summit and make it back to the trailhead before having to flail around in a dark forest, but conditions were prime for faster hikers to make an ascent this way: bluebird day, minimal snow through treeline and the first talus hill, and little to no snow visible on the rest of the route. As for the trailhead, well, it's fairly obvious that it's the road less taken. The dirt road along CR 270, 272, and 274 is easy 2WD dirt, but after turning onto 273, the driving gets a little trickier. The road is one-car-width (sometimes barely that...don't try this unless you're okay with having branches leave love scrapes in your paint) with only sporadic places to pull off, and my Subaru Outback's AWD and ground clearance came in very handy a few times. Would not recommend in any vehicle not similarly equipped. |
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10/23/2017 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 10/24/2017, By: cshanek Info: Headed out early Monday morning to attack Antero, was planning on parking at the creek and heading up. The road up, about 1/4 mile in is super icy, at times all the way across. I turned around right here since I could not guarantee myself that I could keep 2 wheels on thawed land at all times, especially coming down. I saw a couple of other trucks/jeeps turn around there as well. The icy section down low might last 1/8th to 1/4 mile (I got out and walked it). Once the road turns south it seems to thaw up, though who knows what they conditions would be like above (constant freeze thaw). Of course one could still knock out the 16 miles from the main road with spikes. The snow depth above treeline did not look that daunting at all from various angles I had on approach. The weather was also great. |