Mount Antero Trip Report by Mike Downey

Route: Baldwin Gulch Road from Tincup Pass Road. Scramble from end of road to summit.

Pre-climb: I started really early for this climb at around 3:15 a.m. My Dad and I left the house at around 4 and headed straight for the trailhead. The drive from the Wet Mountains through Westcliffe and Cotopaxi is long and covers several slow, mountain roads. We made the turnoff for Tincup Pass Road from Nathrop and reached the trailhead at 6 a.m. some 2 hours later. Although the trail is accessible by 4-wheel drive vehicles all the way to 13,700 feet, my Dad and I wanted the full 5000 foot effect of climbing so we started from the road. The elevation is at 9,300 at this point.

The Climb: The trail begins by climbing steeply and heading straight east. The sun was just starting to rise up over the Buffalo Peaks to the east. I could look through the trees to the north and see the sun as it started to hit the summit of Mount Princeton (14,202). After about a mile and a half the trail reaches the Baldwin Creek drainage and turns to head straight south into the basin. There is a sign posted on a tree that serves as the 2 mile marker. It lists the elevation at 10,850. The next mile is beautiful and travels through the drainage of Baldwin Creek which becomes increasingly narrow. About 1/2 mile before the junction there is a neat place where Baldwin Creek runs along side the trail and there are some beautiful rock outcroppings that you would expect to see in a narrow canyon.

We reached the junction at 2.75 miles. There is a sign which says, "Baldwin Creek" and points Baldwin Lake "straight" and Mount Antero, "left." We turned left and crossed Baldwin Creek which is wide and and shallow. There are no logs to cross but the creek is shallow enough to cross in water-proof boots.

The next mile and a half continue up the drainage that breaks off from Baldwin Creek to the east. There is one more creek crossing 1/4 mile from Baldwin Creek and there is a "spring" crossing another 1/4 mile from there. The tree coverage at this point is Bristlecone, Limber and Lodgepole, having left the aspens at Baldwin Creek. The trees are noticebly shorter and thinner at this point as we approach timberline. The summit of Mount Antero can be seen in places through the trees. At 4.5 miles the trail leaves the trees and there is a small parking lot area where there were some campers. At this point we still hadnt seen anybody along the way, which is surprising, considering this is a popular 14er with a 4-wheel drive road to boot.

Spoke too soon, the rumble of a small jeep was faintly audible down below in the trees.

The trail gains much quicker at this point, previously we had been moving at a 2 mile an hour pace. From here we would move at about half that speed. I looked up and saw the trail as it goes through several switchbacks on its way to the gemstone mine.

On the way up the switchbacks there were 3 vehicles that passed us up. Surpisingly, we did not encounter any climbers at all that were coming up Baldwin Creek. The road cuts through some beautiful green, tundra. Its a shame that the road had to do so much damage to the slopes.

The trail makes a last switchback to head striahgt south and bends around the ridge below the mine. The alpine valley to the south of Antero is gorgeous. There were two tents set up along another road that branches off into the valley and goes down to the east. I ran into a flashlight that must have been dropped by someone. I looked to see if anyone was around and didnt see anyone. I put it in my bag and moved on.

A little further passed the bend in the trail, there is a small open quary on the ridge to the north. There are two knocked-over signs that say, "Private Property, prospecting is stealing. Violators will be prosecuted." Obviously, we had just crossed into the mining claim area. It then hit me that maybe that tent in the valley was put there to discourage trespassing.

We decided that maybe it wasnt a good idea to hang around and continued on. After another 1/4-1/2 mile there is another trail junction. A trail branches off to the east and is probably the way that everyone else had been climbing up.

From the junction the trail gets even steeper and goes through a few more switchbacks on its way to the mine. There are several places along here where water comes right out of the rocks and runs down the trail.

As I approached the top of the trail, Antero was starting to become visible to the north. At the top if the ridge there was a large group of tourist climbers, obviously from Texas, judging from their accent. The elevation is supposed to be at around 13,700 at this point.

The road continues some 100 feet to the west all the way to the mine. This was at 8 miles and somewhere around 10:15 a.m. By this time the clouds were starting to come in to the north around Mount Yale (14,202) and Princeton. We went straight across the ridge to the south of Antero. This last section is much rockier and there is hardly any grass or flowers anywhere.

There is a very faint trail, or more like a patted down path that moves over and around the various boulders. There are places where I had to hop across to some rocks and climb on my hands and knees over rocks. The "path" is hard to follow in places so I just kept moving along the ridge towards Antero.

From the ridge I climbed up the southwest slope of Antero, which is narrow and covered in talus, some of which is a little loose as I found out on the way down. This section is so narrow that you have little room to move from side-to-side. Although the slope continues to the east, there is a large snow patch that runs parallel to the slope. The last 300 feet or so are short but challenging. I paused often to catch my breath.

I reached the summit at 10:58 a.m. By this time the cloud coverage had moved to the south and covered Mount Princeton. Lightning was bouncing all around Yale and Mount Oxford (14,153) to the north. There were only 3 people on top. They moved off quickly thinking the lightning was moving in quickly and would soon reach Antero. I took out my camera and began snapping pictures. I looked all around and saw that there were clouds everywhere, even to the south on Mount Shavano (14,229), but nothing on Antero. This could only be God. Im so glad I changed my mind about doing Yale, otherwise I would have had to turn around.

I stayed on top for about half and hour and then quickly headed down anticipating that the weather could get bad. We made our way down quickly and then turned back at around 13,000 feet to realize that the weather had cleared completely to the north.

When I went back by that mining claim sign and saw that there was no activity in the tents, I decided to look and around and see what the big deal was. I looked around and didnt see anything that looked like it was worth taking home so I left.

We moved down the mountain quickly and decided to go all the way to Baldwin Creek before stopping. A man driving down offered us a ride, but we politely said, "No thanks," with the reasoning that we wanted the full effect of climbing from top to bottom.

By the time we reached the creek, we stopped for 10 minutes and ate a little but decided that since we were making good time we would try to get back early.

The last two miles always seem long on the way back but we made it back down at around 3:20 p.m.

On our way back towards Westcliffe, we continued our tradition of getting a big coke. We stopped at the Burger King in Salida and both got large cokes, which quenched our thirst perfectly.

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