Mt. Antero Trip Report 06/07/2010

Peak(s):	Mt. Antero - 14,271 feet
Date Posted:	06/07/2010
Date Climbed:	06/06/2010
Author:	pwdrskier20

Great Day for Antero
Hiked Antero this past Sunday... An amazingly beautiful day. We stayed up in Buena Vista the night before and hit the trailhead at 7:30. We drove up just past the first creek and parked. The road up is definitely a 4WD road and the creek is running fairly fast right now due to the run off. On hindsight we should have driven to the second creek crossing and parked on the other side. With all the runoff you have to wade across or venture up stream and chance a crossing on some not so great logs. (Not recommended) Right now you can make it all the way up to the start of the switchbacks and there are turn offs all along the way. The road is definitely impassable not far up the switchbacks with several large snow barriers. I would imagine even with warm weather it will be several weeks before you can drive to the top of the switchbacks. There is significant snow melt runoff right now on the roads and in the creeks so be aware of the amount of water flow. The reason we chose this hike is because we knew that since you couldn't drive all the way up there would be little or no car of ATV traffic. Which was correct. We only saw a few ATV's at the very end of the day and 5 other cars. Once we reached the switchbacks we started to encounter snow across the road. In most cases you could easily walk around or beside the snow or quickly cross it without post holing. Once you get to the top of the switchbacks we took the little shortcut trail up and over onto the first ridge. We ran into two guys who were coming down and had thought they had climbed Mt. Antero but instead had made a mistake and climbed the peak to your west, which looked fun but wasn't Antero. Once we got on the road heading around the backside of the hill you just climbed. Look for another road on your left. When we were up there the turn was buried in snow and hard to discern. Head up that road to the saddle where the road ends. From hear we followed a line to the left of the snow and tried to avoid it at all costs. The snow is very soft and you can easily post hole up to your waist or farther. It took us 30-40 minutes from the saddle to the summit. When we summited there were only 3 people there and once they left we had the summit to ourselves. We only ran into 11 people all day including the 2 that climbed the other summit. The descent from the summit is a little precarious. The rocks are fairly loose and with the snow and ice it can make a difficult descent back down to the road. Overall a great day.. It took us about 7 hours for the 8 miles and we spent a good amount of time up top and took our time coming down. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Great Day for Antero

Hiked Antero this past Sunday... An amazingly beautiful day. We stayed up in Buena Vista the night before and hit the trailhead at 7:30. We drove up just past the first creek and parked. The road up is definitely a 4WD road and the creek is running fairly fast right now due to the run off. On hindsight we should have driven to the second creek crossing and parked on the other side. With all the runoff you have to wade across or venture up stream and chance a crossing on some not so great logs. (Not recommended) Right now you can make it all the way up to the start of the switchbacks and there are turn offs all along the way. The road is definitely impassable not far up the switchbacks with several large snow barriers. I would imagine even with warm weather it will be several weeks before you can drive to the top of the switchbacks. There is significant snow melt runoff right now on the roads and in the creeks so be aware of the amount of water flow.

The reason we chose this hike is because we knew that since you couldn't drive all the way up there would be little or no car of ATV traffic. Which was correct. We only saw a few ATV's at the very end of the day and 5 other cars.

Once we reached the switchbacks we started to encounter snow across the road. In most cases you could easily walk around or beside the snow or quickly cross it without post holing.

Once you get to the top of the switchbacks we took the little shortcut trail up and over onto the first ridge. We ran into two guys who were coming down and had thought they had climbed Mt. Antero but instead had made a mistake and climbed the peak to your west, which looked fun but wasn't Antero.

Once we got on the road heading around the backside of the hill you just climbed. Look for another road on your left. When we were up there the turn was buried in snow and hard to discern. Head up that road to the saddle where the road ends. From hear we followed a line to the left of the snow and tried to avoid it at all costs. The snow is very soft and you can easily post hole up to your waist or farther. It took us 30-40 minutes from the saddle to the summit.

When we summited there were only 3 people there and once they left we had the summit to ourselves. We only ran into 11 people all day including the 2 that climbed the other summit.

The descent from the summit is a little precarious. The rocks are fairly loose and with the snow and ice it can make a difficult descent back down to the road.

Overall a great day..

It took us about 7 hours for the 8 miles and we spent a good amount of time up top and took our time coming down.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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