6/22/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/23/2024, By: andrewbdpt Info: Road is clear of snow except for one patch at ~12,800 with one additional very small patch right on the ridge before the summit push that can be avoided. No spikes needed. We waded both river crossings barefoot on the way up (first a bit more than ankle deep, the second mid-shin deep) and were able to rock hop with some wet toes on the way down. Plenty of cars (a lifted Land Cruiser, TRD Tacoma, lifted 4Runner, seemingly stock Subaru Outback Wilderness) past the second river crossing up to the snow patch at 12,800, with some careful driving could get to ~13,000 before a boulder blocks the road, however no where to park at this point. Not an overwhelming amount of folks out, great vibes, great weather, great peak. You can see the highest car we saw in the bottom right of the attached photo |
|
6/19/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/19/2024, By: Tommy Burke Info: I drove up to 10,850 by Baldwin Creek in a Tacoma TRD - no mods. No snow on the drive. On the hike there are snow drifts on the road. One at 12000 that you could get around and one at 12800 that you need a lifted 4WD or a dune buggy. Easy to hike past both. Started at 9 AM and was down by 3:30. There is some snow fields higher up but they were easy to go around. My Garmin recorded/Strava corrected distance is 11.2m and elevation gain 3430ft. |
|
6/15/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: zzcarp Info: From 2WD trailhead, pup Lincoln and I left the car and started hiking around 4:20am. The first three miles to the trail split were easy and beautiful hiking. I think anyone driving a vehicle with higher clearance than a standard SUV could easily make it the first 1,000 feet through the first creek crossing. After that, an SUV could make it to the trail split and likely a ways higher. The trail split main water crossing was interesting. Ice covered the rocks and I almost bit it. So I decided to wade barefoot across. Ice also covered the log "bridge" over the next crossing. I almost fell and had to borrow two poles from a fellow hiker to get across one step at a time on the wire. After that, it was smooth sailing mostly to the end of the road. A 4-wheeler made it to midway up the switchbacks before there was too much snow. For a hiker the snow was easily avoided. Trouble began crossing the snowfield/quicksand field between the end of the road and the ridge. It was postholy in the snow and the bare soil was saturated and flowed down the mountain with each step. Then the ridge proper. There were somewhat visible trails through the difficulties, though traversing/bypassing the snowfields was a mental challenge. My recommendation is to stay high when possible. Once past the troubles, we just attacked the direct route and summited. It was a sunny summit for us. Then we made it carefully past the difficulties on the ridge and back to the road. The water crossings were flowing much higher on the way down, though the bridge and the rocks were no longer icy. Otherwise, it was a great hike down back to the car. |
|
6/15/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/15/2024, By: bluepic Info: There's still a few snowbanks covering some of the switchbacks, but they aren't that difficult to get through or around as they're melting pretty fast. I saw a couple folks still able to climb the gully instead of the taking the switchbacks. As you get to the ridge, there's short section where you still need to traverse a small angled snowfield, which could be uncomfortable for some depending on snow conditions. I brought traction with me, but didn't feel it was needed. Otherwise if you stick to the ridge, you should be able to avoid any remaining snow to the summit. |
|
6/8/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/12/2024, By: Ellwood Info: Road is clear to the 278 turnoff at Baldwin Lake Meadow, though it is quite a bumpy ride. We chose not to cross the creek on Friday night but saw one Tacoma make it up to about 11,800' before snowbanks covered the trail. Snowbanks covered most of the switchbacks and we opted to climb up the gully with microspikes. Final ascent past the mining road is a fun one. Was able to glissade the gully back down to cut off some significant mileage, though this was probably the last weekend to do it. Snow is melting fast and road should be clear in 1-2 weeks. |
|
5/17/2024 Route: South Face/ SE Gully Posted On: 5/18/2024, By: jmanner Info: Skied the South Face to the SE Couloir/Gully from Browns Ck TH. All three faces are very very fat, some guys were dropping the north face when I skied off the south face. Hiked to (3.2 miles)10,600 threw the skins on and was able to tour up the SE gully to 14,000 on the summit ridge. Skied the south face into the south east gully down through the Couloir that the prior group talked about, ski cut a nice soft wet slab, so its probably not worth a ski now. Skied out to 10,260(2.5 miles) and hiked back from there. The ski out wasnt the best, a lot of rock hooping and tree bushwhacking. Probably not worth going past where I threw the skis on, in hindsight. |
|
5/8/2024 Route: South Face / SE Gully Posted On: 5/9/2024, By: ejfahren Info: Parked at Browns Ck TH - road is clear and dry. Hiked Browns Creek trail until the Little Browns Creek trail split, and followed that drainage until transitioning to skins around 11k'. Continuous snow from there to the summit via SE gully and South face. Able to link turns through the sastrugi waves on the ridge from the summit into the South face proper at 14k'. The entire SE bowl has amazing coverage. Great new snow to boot tops made for wonderful turns in the loaded south face. Several exit options from there - one of our party skied the SE gully and the other skied a steep SE couloir that branched from the gully with steep granite walls. Both had excellent snow. Skied the Little Browns Creek gully to 10800' and walked the dry trail back to the truck. Not the traditional West slope ski but a beautiful basin with much better snow coverage, just a longer walk. FYI, looking down the NE face (that you see from 285), several lines are continuous through the rock bands. Might need to come back in a few days for that. Overall, ~15 mi, 5.7k'. |
|
5/4/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 5/4/2024, By: ILnoise Info: 4wd road: large alternating patches of snow and dry road, icy/solid in the morning. Lots had melted and the rest was soft by the afternoon. Enough room on the road to sidestep most of the snow to avoid postholing on the way down. There were 3 relatively large downed trees across the road, first one about 1.9mi from the bottom of the road, second around 2mi, third around 2.4mi. Once the snow melts anyone with a mind to drive up to the 4wd TH might consider bringing a chainsaw and a few friends. 4wd trailhead: mostly continuous snow from 4wd TH to treeline, but melting fast. Icy in the morning (we got by without spikes just fine), floatation highly recommended in the afternoon. Lots of posting without. Switchbacks: still plenty of snowdrifts along most of them. We opted to take the ridgeline direct and avoid the switchbacks. The ridge had lots of snowy and dry patches lower down, lots of rocky and snowy patches higher up. I don't think we would have made it up the steeper slopes without spikes and an axe, though another person on the mountain today did it with spikes and poles. Summit ridge: the standard route is lower down and still snowed in so we stuck mostly to the ridge proper. A few class 3 moves and some kick-steps were needed in a few places. The final push after the exposed section of ridgeline is loose talus, but snow up there isn't a major issue. We found a helmet with a gopro mount just before the summit ridge. If it's yours and you want it back please message me with the brand and color and I'll do what I can to get it back to you! |
|
2/24/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2/29/2024, By: BobAugenthaler Info: Antero: I climbed Antero on Saturday, 2/24/24 with 2 others. There was another group of 3 on the mountain that day, but no one else. All 6 of us summited successfully. The 3 of us wore snowshoes from trailhead to tree line, but there was not any significant trail breaking/post holing involved. When we arrived to tree line, we put our snowshoes on our packs. In hindsight, we could have just left them at tree line. We had decided to climb directly up a ridge rather than hike along the longer, switchbacking 4x4 road. The route we chose was steeper, but a shorter, more direct route, and it didn't require any trail breaking/post holing that the 4x4 road likely would have. Weather was favorable: clear skies, relatively low winds, high visibility. It was definitely cold...our fingers and toes were feeling it during parts of the early morning hours...but we pushed through. Full moon lit up a dark mountain as we exited tree line! Some stats: 3:15AM start 10:30AM summit 4:45PM finish This included several breaks, including about an hour spent on the summit...we weren't moving fast. Distance: 11.6 miles Elevation gain: 4,967 feet Mountain forecast.com was forecasting (as of Friday night) a high of 18F at peak (0F with windchill), with winds of 25-30mph. I don't know actual weather stats. |
|
1/29/2024 Route: West rib to south subsummit Posted On: 1/30/2024, By: the_hare Info: Boy howdy what a route. Great bootpack trench established to about half a mile past Baldwin Creek crossing, snowshoes useful past that. Turned off at 11,800ft to ascend rib up to 13,780 Antero subsummit shown well in supranihilests TR. I was surprised with how secure the rocks were especially on the upper stretch. Solid tracks in place across the rocky dragonsback ridge from the subsummit to Antero proper. On the way back I took an access road from the saddle between the subsummit & the gendarme ridge that ran down around the subsummit and ended on its west rib. The edge of the road was visible thru the sugar snow drifts over the road and provided ok passing. There was one large drift completely covering the road that was hard to get purchase on, ice axe would have been useful for climbing over it. It was w a r m today! Wish I brought waterproof gaiters and a change of socks, the snow melted thru my laces and got my shoes soaked by the end of the day. Theres several smaller loaded-looking W-facing slopes above the trail past the Balwin Creek crossing. It didnt seem like this part of the Sawatch got as much of an unstable dump as the northern half, didnt see any signs instability while crossing. |
|
11/18/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 11/19/2023, By: Shredstick263 Info: Road was icy and snowy all the way up, but out of stubbornness, I didn't put on microspikes until 11k feet. Left them on all the way down. Snow shoes also would have been helpful in sections, but if you're willing to posthole a bit, you can do without. Two of us put in a decent track to follow. Last few hundred feet very easy to follow. |
|
10/27/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 10/27/2023, By: wanderlust073 Info: The last dry hiking day of the year? A few good size stretches of ice on the road below treeline but bone dry above till the previously reported quarter mile of snow around 13k (easily bypassed). Straight shot up the final pitch is the way to go. Ungodly windy on the summit. |
|
10/21/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 10/21/2023, By: caesarsalad Info: 99% summer conditions (still!). About 0.5 mile of deep snow at 13k feet completely covering the road I wouldnt recommend driving through (see photos) but clear besides that. Even that stretch theres a small path on the far right side to avoid walking in the snow. Brought spikes but didnt use them. |
|
9/29/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 9/30/2023, By: Strugglr Info: No snow on the road or the trail to the summit. Perfect fall day. Biking that road is no joke, up or down. Aspens are stunning right now. |
|
9/28/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 9/28/2023, By: Piotr Info: Nice and dry all the way. See pictures for conditions around. |
