6/24/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: Ryan987 Info: Drove up to the parking area at tree line (12000 ft). Road isn't bad if you have a good clearance 4x4. Saw a subie go up as I was leaving... wouldn't reccomend that but make your own judgement. Summer conditions with short slushy pits here and there above the gate. Didn't use my microspikes. The excavator has opened up the road further up and people should be able to drive up to the saddle area now |
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6/24/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: mmbakken Info: Creeks are flowing strong. Rocks to cross the creek 3mi in were icy/uncrossable in the AM, so be prepared to get wet if you have to cross it. Was fine in the PM. First creek crossing right by the start of 277 is bridged a little further upstream (2min walk). Snowfields are present and easily crossable without traction. Trekking poles were very helpful for snow and creek crossings. |
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6/20/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: baileydvoss Info: There is a creek crossing about a tenth of a mile into the trail. Kept my feet dry by walking a couple hundred feet up the creek to a fallen log. The log gets a little wobbly as you get towards the center but is sturdy enough for anyone with decent balance. The next two creek crossings are pretty straight forward. No snow on the trail until about 13,500, but it wasn't an issue at all. Summit is mostly clear of snow. |
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6/19/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: JakeByk Info: Trail in great condition. Brought axe and spikes and used them to climb up a snowfield between switchbacks, and on the summit ridge but not necessary if you're careful. River crossing at 3 miles is very fast and deep, recommend sandals and poles. First 14er of the year with no postholing! |
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6/18/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/19/2023, By: troyflannigan Info: Drove up to the creek at 10,800 and parked about 50 yards past the creek, plenty of parking. Road is def 4WD and no snow. Started at 7:15am and crossed the damaged road as mentioned in previous post. Construction has begun but not passable. Some snow on lower switchbacks, a lot of snow on upper switchback and I used spikes. I would have turned around without spikes as did others, but I did see a few summit without. Last 300 ft climb was 40 degrees with winds 40+. On the way down, we took one too many switchbacks on the upper section and added 30 mins to our hike, keep an eye out for that on the way down. Beautiful hike down below 13k, 55 degrees and sunny. Maybe saw 25 or so others on the trial. |
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6/18/2023 Route: via Little Browns Creek Trail Posted On: 6/18/2023, By: Briere Info: Started at 5am; summit at 9:30am; back to TH at 1pm. Trail was mostly snow free; No flotation is needed and very minimal post-holing. No traction was required but I did use crampons since I brought them. 2 snow fields to cross but you can avoid them if you really want. The top was snow-covered on the right (will attach an image) but you can summit via the left side of the ridge and rock jump. I brought crampons so I went straight up on the right via the snow and that seemed to make my life easier. |
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6/12/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: Mt_DAN Info: Was able to drive to the road junction at 10,850 feet to start my hike. Road was snow free to 11,850 this morning. The miners are working on the road, so it might be clear to the end by Friday. Snow and ice remains on the trail. Traction and trekking poles might be handy if you go. |
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6/11/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: Logan5280 Info: Tagged both Antero and Cronin today. This is definitely the time of year to hike Antero since there isn't a crazy amount of snow, but just enough to keep vehicles from going high up. Started at 7 at the 2wd trailhead, and promptly fell into the stream at the 2nd major creek crossing; quite the way to kick off the day. The highest car I saw was just below the start of the switchbacks. I decided to climb the main gully, starting above the first switchback, in order to cut some mileage. There's decent coverage, but it might melt out in not too long. Microspikes necessary for the gully in the morning. After a few (mostly avoidable) snowfields, I reached the top of Antero around 9:50. From there, I was feeling pretty good, and weather was still holding, so I decided to go for Cronin from the SE ridge. I glissaded the little summit snowfield, which was fine but a little sloppy, then walked down to the road turn at 13.1k. From there, I walked along the endless, mostly dry rolling ridge of Cronin. I stashed my pack around 13.2k on the ridge and was able to do some mostly dry but loose talus hopping to the top, crossing 2-3 small snowfields. I tagged the summit around 11:30 and then descended towards Antero as the weather rolled in. The switchback gully made for a decent glissade, aside from a posthole that plunged my foot into a small under-snow river (notice a theme with this?). Easy walk down from there, arriving back at the trailhead around 2:15pm. My OnX line says that this linkup (accounting for the gully shortcut) was 16-17ish miles and 6.4k vert. |
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6/8/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/8/2023, By: out_there Info: Great day out after a not-insignificant snowfall last night. Probably 3-4 inches of new snow above 11,500, and wind blown deeper sections here and there. Especially on east facing aspects of the ridge and final summit push. Was fine with micro spikes, just rock hopped. On the section after the ridge I stayed left to avoid the deep windblown snow. I did take the gully shortcut on switchbacks that other users mentioned, but only on the way up due to firmness. On the way down the switchbacks I noticed at least 2 areas where a chunk of the mountainside had broken away in an avalanche and took part of the road with it. Was fine to cross but wont be passable to vehicles for a while. Road still impassable from roughly 1-1.5 mi past the primary creek crossing/split. The postholing on this area in particular was brutal around 9-10am just go around it. The previously mentioned trees have been cleared though. |
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6/6/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/6/2023, By: -wren- Info: Ended up using spikes/axe on one off camber snow crossing on the road and for the summit ridge, although you could probably get by fine without. Axe is overkill but I dont own trekking poles so I just used what I had. up to a couple hundred feet below treeline, road is passable by vehicle and if youre hiking it you could probably do it all without stepping on snow. Past treeline on the road theres some snow patches to contend with on foot, vehicles arent going to get much higher even in with very high clearance and 4wd. The summit ridge still has quite a bit of snow along the most obvious route, although you can switch to loose talus for portions of it if desired without a hassle. Starting around 4:30 and finishing at noon the snow was mostly supportive otw up and less so but still manageable otw down, postholed a good 30-40 steps or so total but not too bad. An obvious glissade path cuts through 3 or 4 switchbacks back to treeline but its melting fast, lots of sharks poking out. |
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6/3/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/4/2023, By: AndrewJCraigie Info: Long but nice day - not too much snow aside from the occasional patch up the road. Snowshoes not needed, but would bring spikes / poles to cross some steeper bits of snow that cross the switchback. Ridge up to the peak still had snow that was mainly firm - was fun going up. 2 other groups aside from ours were headed to the peak - one group of visiting hikers decided to turn back at the ridge. Start 4:15am, end 3:00pm |
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5/28/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 5/31/2023, By: van_w Info: No snow until a quarter mile past the 4wd TH. A few downed trees in the next quarter mile after that. We took a snow gully up to cut the switchbacking road (standard route). Microspikes and axe were sufficient for this. Then hit last switchback and traversed on the road to another snow gully to get to the 13,800 ft knob. Ridgeline to summit was snowy. Could be dangerous late in they day when snow is warm. Summit had some snow drift and dry ground on top. Go and get it! |
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5/27/2023 Route: Gully Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: Zleisure Info: Started at 4:50am from 2WD/start of 277. 4WD road driveable until ~11,000, just past the 278 split off/stream crossing. After that there are multiple trees down and still deep snow. 11,000-11,600' is mix snow and gravel on the road. Snow was supportive with snowshoes in the morning, but slushy and postholing in sections in the early afternoon. At 11,600' took the gully up until the last road crossing (~12,800), then continued up hugging the NW rib (left side looking up). Traction required for the gully. I used snowshoes, others had spikes. You'll want to hug that rib until ~13,200' where you'll see a snow covered path connect to the saddle. That road snow is solid. I switched to spikes at the saddle until the peak. Summited ~9:45am. Back to car ~1:15pm. Summary: Gully is the way to go. Bring spikes and possibly snowshoes if you want to avoid some postholing. |
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4/9/2023 Route: Custom Posted On: 4/10/2023, By: Shiffdog Info: Our plan for the day was to skin up the 4x4 road from parking lot, all the way to the summit, and then to descend the same way on our splitboards. This was not how our day went. We left the car around 7am, and for the whole approach, skinning proved to be very effective. There was a somewhat established track, and good snow coverage. Unfortunately, when we came above tree line (about 12000), we realized we could not continue on the road. Looking up the mountain, we saw that it was filled in with snow to the point where it was too off-camber to be safe. Next to where the road began switch backing, there was a gully that was filled with snow. We decided to skin straight up this gully. We got most of the way up until it became too steep and rocky to skin. We then stashed our split-boards, and continued on foot. It was a tough decision to leave our boards behind, but ultimately it was the right one. After gaining the ridge, we saw the false summit, and then finally, the real summit. It looked far away, but after a little more time on the rocky, snowy ridge, we made it. At 2pm, we were on the summit. After finally making our way back down to our splitboards, we cruised back to the car (with only a few short uphills to hike). Overall, the day had a mix of type 1 and type 2 fun. The main takeway is: if you're going to splitboard or ski this mountain, bring some hiking shoes with you. |
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3/18/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 3/19/2023, By: shapovalovm Info: tl;dr: Be ready to break trail until 11900 and then deal with a lot of snow-covered loose rock that will destroy your calves. Attached some pics. 9400 (TH) - 10270: visible trench with some fresh snow. The base is packed so no postholing. Wore microspikes. 10270 - 10900 (Baldwin Lake): no trench or trail visible, other than a tiny dent in the snow. Broke trail in microspikes (maybe ankle-calf deep), but any half-step in the wrong direction meant thigh/waist deep postholing. On the way back wore snowshoes to leave a better trench. 10900-11900 (W Rib): no trehcn/trail visible *at all*, trenched in snowshoes. Still some really deep postholing, but not too often. Stashed snowshoes there and continued in spikes. 11900-13800: a lot of loose rock covered with snow, also very steep. You make a step and rely on your luck to not dislodge a bunch of rocks. Probably the worst hike for my calves in years. You can probably go directly to the saddle and avoid climbing 13800, but the road there had a ton of snow so I figured I'd rather climb up and down than posthole again. The ridge to the summit: the first half is rocky ups and downs that are hard to avoid due to a ton of snow. Drains energy. The 2nd half is an easy way up (still with some loose undersnow rocks). I tried to leave a trench, but given I was solo, don't expect a highway. Chances are it's going to be gone after mid-week snow too. Any steps above the treeline are probably gone already. The road to TH is accessible by any car. 9am-7pm car-to-car. Haven't seen a single person that day. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow in Colorado mountains before, the views are fantastic. Despite all the hardship, I'm pretty sure this is the best way to do Antero. Way better than just walking the road. Such a fun day! |
