Mt. Antero Trip Report 06/10/2007

Peak(s):	Mt. Antero - 14,271 feet
Date Posted:	06/10/2007
Date Climbed:	06/09/2007
Author:	TheKanes

Mt. Antero (From Baldwin Creek)
We decided at the very last minute on Friday night to go climb something and Mt. Antero was the winner. We figured why not climb the 10th highest mountain in Colorado for our 10th 14er. Jen and I set out from Colorado Springs about 4:00PM on Friday. With minimum camping and climbing gear we headed up to the trailhead to setup camp just beside Baldwin Creek. Around 6PM we figured we would get a good night sleep and head out the next morning around 5AM... Wrong.... During the night "something" kept lurking around our camp; at first I thought it was a bear so I decided to wait it out and let it go away on its own. Well after an hour it still didn‘t leave so I decided to make some noise and spook it out of our camp. This seemed to of worked (for a while) then the something decided to come back and snoop around more. This time it was making different noises like 10 thumps...pause...10 thumps...pause and so on. Eventually, I figured it wasn‘t a bear as I have never heard that before from a bear. Again, after an hour or so of this critter snooping around I figured I would chirp the alarm on the truck to once again scare it off, but that didn‘t work so by this time I really knew it wasn‘t a bear... so I said "Oh what the heck its not going to kill us" and I forced myself to sleep around 2 AM. Two and 1/2 hours later the alarm went off and it was time to get up and get moving. With about 3 hours of sleep I knew we would be in for a adventure! We set off from the camp at Baldwin Creek for Antero about 5:45AM; the sky was clear and the wind was very low. Walking up the Jeep trail to treeline was pretty easy and uneventful. The road is clear and free of snow all the way up to treeline. Just above treeline there was a lone bush that the dogs had seemed very interested in. Curiously, Anna decided to go jam her face into the bush and came up looking like this. So this is when the fun begins. After taking 30 to 45 minutes playing Dr. with the dog we were able to remove about 3/4 of the quills from her face and paw. At this point I was getting grumpy thinking once again the dog is going to cost me a 14er today. We decided to see how the dog felt and let her decided what we should do? Anna didn‘t even seem to notice anything was wrong and still wanted to go back and visit her friend in the bush for another round, so I guess the decision was made we would continue on for the summit. Our little setback and lack of sleep started to take its toll on us; we were still making good time on the climb but decided to take the standard route on the road over climbing the steep couloirs. On our road accent we had cut out a few switchbacks to make up for lost time. Around 12,800, where the road runs to the SW, we met up with 2 other climbers stopped for a quick chat with them and we were off on what we decided would be our "hybrid route." We followed the road up to 13,000, then cut up the boulder field. By this time the winds had started to pick up and made us even more grumpy. We had reached the ridge at 13,800‘ and decided we needed a rest and had to check how Anna the dog was doing with her face full of quills. We had a few snacks and recouped while we watched Anna run around like crazy. We laughed because she looked like a Saber tooth Tiger; we still don't think she realized she had them in her face. We decided lets make the last push for summit across the windy ridge. We were the 4th and 5th person of the day to reach the summit around 9:30AM which wasn‘t bad time considering all the setbacks we had experienced. I will admit I was glad to be there and be halfway done! On summit we were lucky-the wind had died down enough for us to enjoy 30minutes up there before starting our decent. Here is a picture of Anna looking for the porcupine to get revenge! Here is a picture of Jen looking at Mt. Princeton thinking, "Wow was I just over there a week ago looking at Antero?" Here is Cee-Cee thinking "who are these crazy people who adopted me and why am I standing on top of my 4th 14er in 2 weeks?" And here I am with my sleep deprived, starving stomach, oxygen deprived blood thinking about getting back home to an ice cold beer! Our decent was pretty uneventful-we were able to find some snow to glissade down a few couloirs. While taking the road and a few shortcuts we looked back up at summit and realized it wasn‘t such a bad day but we were glad it was over. Once were back at camp around 12:15PM we all decided to jump into Baldwin Creek... of course the dogs swam way more that we did because it is still very, VERY cold. __________________________________________________________ Update on Anna she is doing very well and has had all the quills removed with the excellent help of Michele at the Arkansas Valley Humane Society and a Vet in Colorado Springs. Yes she did cost us some $$$ but looking back on it all we had an adventure we will not forget. If you think we were cruel for still hiking after the porcupine incident we invite you to meet Anna. You will see she is onc energetic powerhouse that just keeps going and going like the Energizer bunny! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mt. Antero (From Baldwin Creek)

We decided at the very last minute on Friday night to go climb something and Mt. Antero was the winner. We figured why not climb the 10th highest mountain in Colorado for our 10th 14er.

Jen and I set out from Colorado Springs about 4:00PM on Friday. With minimum camping and climbing gear we headed up to the trailhead to setup camp just beside Baldwin Creek. Around 6PM we figured we would get a good night sleep and head out the next morning around 5AM...

Wrong....

During the night "something" kept lurking around our camp; at first I thought it was a bear so I decided to wait it out and let it go away on its own. Well after an hour it still didn‘t leave so I decided to make some noise and spook it out of our camp. This seemed to of worked (for a while) then the something decided to come back and snoop around more. This time it was making different noises like 10 thumps...pause...10 thumps...pause and so on. Eventually, I figured it wasn‘t a bear as I have never heard that before from a bear. Again, after an hour or so of this critter snooping around I figured I would chirp the alarm on the truck to once again scare it off, but that didn‘t work so by this time I really knew it wasn‘t a bear... so I said "Oh what the heck its not going to kill us" and I forced myself to sleep around 2 AM. Two and 1/2 hours later the alarm went off and it was time to get up and get moving. With about 3 hours of sleep I knew we would be in for a adventure!

We set off from the camp at Baldwin Creek for Antero about 5:45AM; the sky was clear and the wind was very low. Walking up the Jeep trail to treeline was pretty easy and uneventful. The road is clear and free of snow all the way up to treeline.

Just above treeline there was a lone bush that the dogs had seemed very interested in. Curiously, Anna decided to go jam her face into the bush and came up looking like this.

So this is when the fun begins. After taking 30 to 45 minutes playing Dr. with the dog we were able to remove about 3/4 of the quills from her face and paw. At this point I was getting grumpy thinking once again the dog is going to cost me a 14er today. We decided to see how the dog felt and let her decided what we should do? Anna didn‘t even seem to notice anything was wrong and still wanted to go back and visit her friend in the bush for another round, so I guess the decision was made we would continue on for the summit.

Our little setback and lack of sleep started to take its toll on us; we were still making good time on the climb but decided to take the standard route on the road over climbing the steep couloirs. On our road accent we had cut out a few switchbacks to make up for lost time. Around 12,800, where the road runs to the SW, we met up with 2 other climbers stopped for a quick chat with them and we were off on what we decided would be our "hybrid route." We followed the road up to 13,000, then cut up the boulder field. By this time the winds had started to pick up and made us even more grumpy. We had reached the ridge at 13,800‘ and decided we needed a rest and had to check how Anna the dog was doing with her face full of quills. We had a few snacks and recouped while we watched Anna run around like crazy. We laughed because she looked like a Saber tooth Tiger; we still don't think she realized she had them in her face. We decided lets make the last push for summit across the windy ridge.

We were the 4th and 5th person of the day to reach the summit around 9:30AM which wasn‘t bad time considering all the setbacks we had experienced. I will admit I was glad to be there and be halfway done! On summit we were lucky-the wind had died down enough for us to enjoy 30minutes up there before starting our decent.

Here is a picture of Anna looking for the porcupine to get revenge!

Here is a picture of Jen looking at Mt. Princeton thinking, "Wow was I just over there a week ago looking at Antero?"

Here is Cee-Cee thinking "who are these crazy people who adopted me and why am I standing on top of my 4th 14er in 2 weeks?"

And here I am with my sleep deprived, starving stomach, oxygen deprived blood thinking about getting back home to an ice cold beer!

Our decent was pretty uneventful-we were able to find some snow to glissade down a few couloirs. While taking the road and a few shortcuts we looked back up at summit and realized it wasn‘t such a bad day but we were glad it was over.

Once were back at camp around 12:15PM we all decided to jump into Baldwin Creek... of course the dogs swam way more that we did because it is still very, VERY cold.

__________________________________________________________

Update on Anna she is doing very well and has had all the quills removed with the excellent help of Michele at the Arkansas Valley Humane Society and a Vet in Colorado Springs. Yes she did cost us some $$$ but looking back on it all we had an adventure we will not forget. If you think we were cruel for still hiking after the porcupine incident we invite you to meet Anna. You will see she is onc energetic powerhouse that just keeps going and going like the Energizer bunny!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

cpittman	Hi Jennifer! 11/30/2010 5:28pm Hi Jennifer- It's Kacy Pittman. I just met you today at Creekside Middle School! This is my husband's log-on ”stuff” so please forgive the stupid picture! We are planning on climbing Antero this weekend...hope our dog can avoid the porcupine issue! If you are ever looking for other people to hike with or have any questions...please let me know! Enjoy your weekend.
CDecker40	Just a quick clarification 2/5/2011 12:22am Hey Kradmin, Just checking in to ask about your camp spot. We're heading up there tomorrow. I'm looking at the topo in Roach's book. There's a spot on the trail marked for 4WD parking at 10,840 next to Baldwin Creek. Is that about where you guys set up? How was the road on the way up? Hopefully we'll have been luck with the late-night visitors. Hope the porcupine-dog is feeling better. -Decker

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