Mt. Antero - 14,269 ft

Climbers:  George and Abby Barnes

Route:  SW Slopes II - Class 2

RT distance: 4.0 miles

RT time: 5 hours

Elevation gain:  2600 feet

USGS Quadrangles:  Mount Antero
 

Introduction (George):

It'd been almost 2 years since I last climbed Antero, and I'd done so at night last time.  Antero would be a new 14er for Abby, so I was happy to head back again and see it in the daylight.  Thanks to recent beta from FourteenerWorld I knew the Baldwin Creek road was more or less passable, so Saturday night Abby and I gassed up the Liberty and headed for Buena Vista.

After stopping at the Gunsmoke Truckstop for supplies (water, Gatorade, and white cheddar popcorn), we started bouncing up the never-ending 4WD road and finally pulled in to our campsite after sunset.  I'd done Antero from lower down the road the last time, so I was happy to drive us up the road to tree line at 11,800 feet.  Just before reaching our campsite we scared a dog sized porcupine off the road and into the woods.

At the campsite we converted the Liberty into RV-mode, putting the front seats all the way forward and unfolding my foam bouldering crashpad, 4 thermarests, and 2 sleeping bags.  RV-mode isn't exceptionally luxurious (especially for me), so I spent most of the night rolling over and repositioning my feet on the armrest. 

I don't recall what I was dreaming about, but sometime after 1AM a persistent gnawing sound entered my dream.  It seemed to go on for sometime, and finally I think I decided the gnawing was a non sequitur and woke up.  To my surprise the gnawing sounds continued, seemingly inches from my face.  After checking to see if Abby was having dreams about eating seat belts I finally put everything together.... that son of a biscuit porcupine was eating my Jeep!  Now wide awake (and fairly angry) I started up the engine and mashed the gas pedal a few times to send the rodent on his way.  The rest of the night passed without incident, and subsequent crawling around under my Jeep suggested that no long term damage occurred beyond the lost sleep.

A quick google search indicates that porcupines are fond of eating brake lines and radiator hoses, and I remember Doug S. mentioning that a porcupine tried to eat his truck at the Grays/Torreys TH a few years ago.

Trip Report (Abby):

This was my first 14er of the year.  We had discussed getting up really early in order to watch the sunrise from the summit on the drive up. But we didn’t entertain that idea for long.  After hitting snooze a couple of times because we were both finally sleeping soundly for the first time all night, we decided we better get a move on.  We finally started up the road a little before 0700.  I wasn’t feeling that fabulous as we started out so we took our time.  We chose to go for a snow gully that intersected the road instead of getting our fill of switchbacks on the way up.  The sun hadn’t reached the gully yet so the snow was still firm and we worked our way up the gully stopping to put crampons on when it started getting steeper (ed:  steepness compares to the Angel of Shavano, 30-35º, though this route is less aesthetic).  We had to get rid of the crampons before we made it to the ridge because we ran out of snow.  We had a mix of rocks, ice/snow covered rocks, and snow to traverse and scramble our way to the summit.  This was one of my least favorite summit pushes because of the soft snow and snowy icy rocks on a somewhat exposed summit ridge.  “This is not my idea of fun” was uttered more than once. (ed:  The snow on the ridge seemed to turn into a 7-11 slurpee upon sun hit.  I punched a few waist deep postholes on the way down.) I was running out of steam for the last steep part up to the summit so George went on ahead to encourage me from the summit.  By now the clouds were building and so we didn’t relax on the summit.  We snapped a couple of pictures and much to the displeasure of my tired muscles started back down without even sitting down.  We followed the road down from the summit for a good portion of the decent.  We couldn’t pass up a couple of glissades to cut down on the hiking and George insisted on stopping for more self arrest practice.  I guess that means he’d like to keep me around for future hiking trips J

Abby on the way up

Abby and George

Mighty Antero

Abby nearing the summit

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