Date Climbed: 9/12/14
Climbing Partners: Brad (dad), Rene (mom), Alysa, and Salix
Elevation: 14,269
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Daniel Weiss
Mt. Antero. Not a particularly beautiful or difficult mountain, but it was on the list. Late Thursday evening, my wife, Salix (our dog), and I drove up to the beautiful and famous Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort to meet my parents. It was not the first time I would have climbing partners on a fourteener, but it was the first time I had climbed with my parents. Although I had more recent experience on a fourteener than my parents and had climbed more than they had, they had lived in Colorado long before I was born and had summited Wilson Peak when I was little. In other words, they had climbed a fourteener tougher than any mountain I had yet climbed. So although I am obviously younger than they are, they have much more experience, and so I knew they would be excellent partners.
We arrived at our cabin at 10 PM, grabbed some dinner with my parents at the resort's bar, and went to bed. On most fourteeners an early start is necessary. Antero, however, has a 4x4 road pretty much to the top (save the last 400 feet or so). Hoping Dad's Avalanche truck would have a tough enough chassis, we slept in and hit the road at 8 AM. The minute we left the 2-wheel drive dirt road, the path became rocky and very slow going. there were a few tight spots where we had to pull over as far as possible in order to let some jeeps pass. Every once in a while I would have to jump out and guide the truck around large boulders.
It was definitely not the roughest road we had been on, but things go much slower in a truck compared to ATVs (our preferred mode of transportation in the mountains). I got so impatient I got out of the truck at one point and walked right alongside it just to stretch my legs. I kept up just fine and realized I could have hiked to the top faster than the truck was moving. However, I knew it would be faster to continue in the truck for the group as a whole, as we still were many miles from the summit and driving conserves energy for the hike above timberline.
After about an hour and a half or so of driving, the truck was just beginning to emerge from the trees and the slope began to grow steep. Suddenly, the tires lost traction and the Avalanche was just kicking up small rocks. This was as far as we could go in the truck. We all got out, watered up, leashed up my parents dog, Hunter (who was 12 or so at the time. Too old for any kind of hike), and began to hike up the road. Twenty minutes later, a few people passed us on ATVs and I sighed in frustration, wishing we had brought ours. The whole trip would have taken an hour from the Resort to the top had we done so. But I kept on pushing, knowing that it would be all the more rewarding to reach the top on my own two feet. After forty minutes of hiking Alysa decided to turn around and took Salix with her. The altitude had not been kind to her, so I told her to look after Hunter when she got back and jogged ahead to catch up to my parents.
Mt. Antero is not particularly beautiful in and of itself, but the views from it are spectacular. From the road I could see Baldwin Gulch sprawling out beneath us. All I could think about was how much I would love to come back in the winter and backpack in to camp near the beautiful lakes that were there. As we continued on, we finally reached the road junction on the ridge leading up to Antero. We stopped for a minute to rehydrate and look at the map to make sure we followed the right trail. Just as we began our hike again, we ran into a group of hikers descending the road, who told us that we were headed in the right direction. We still had a little ways to go, and the road would only get tougher from here. Thankfully, I was in good shape from my hike up Oxford and Belford. Compared to that, this was just a walk in the park.
As the road began to get even steeper, my dad had to take a few more breaks as the altitude began to take its toll. My mom, a Colorado native, was doing just fine. In fact, I almost had to try to keep up with her! We reached the end of the road about twenty minutes later. Here was where the real challenge began. The last half mile of Antero is no joke. It is a tough scramble over very loose rock, and I definitely recommend bringing a helmet if you attempt it. The first part of the scramble is a quarter mile journey straight across the ridge to the base of the summit pyramid. From there it is very steep loose rock. The ridge went by very quickly, but the last bit to the summit was slow going, as we had to be very careful with each step and we lost the "trail" multiple times. My mom told us that she was nervous about this and that she was going to turn around, but my dad and I told her that was crazy when we were so close to the top.
Thankfully, I started climbing straight up the pyramid out of sheer frustration and stumbled upon the "trail" (when I say trail, I mean a very narrow line where foot traffic has worn down the stones enough to give the hiker an idea of the easiest line to follow). This was enough encouragement to keep my mom going, and so we began to follow it until I realized it would take us in a long, round about loop up to the top. Having plenty of energy and tired of waiting, I scrambled straight up the last bit up to the top and waited for my parents.
Unfortunately, we could not find the register so I just took a few photos as evidence and we took some ten minutes taking in the views. My dad pointed out several different fourteeners and other mountain ranges that could be seen on this clear, calm day. At one point he said he didn't realize just how much you could see from the top of a fourteener and he was glad he had come along. Satisfied that my parents had enjoyed the climb and had gotten their fill of the summit, we started back down, taking a more direct route down to the ridge. The hike back was uneventful, although I did suggest we take the trail down the West slopes rather than the road, but my parents declined. It took us an hour or so to get back to the truck, and apparently none too soon. Hunter had run out of water, so we gave him some of ours and started the long slow journey back down to the resort.
That night we ate a good dinner and enjoyed the hot springs. While we were at dinner, I told my parents that I planned on climbing Mt. Sneffels in a week and asked if they wanted to go. They said they would think about it. A few days later, my mom called me, saying that they wanted to get in a few of the fourteeners in too now that they had had a taste of it. We quickly booked a room in one of the last vacant hotels in Ouray, and our plans were set for our climb of Sneffels. And this time, we would bring our ATVs. I was excited, and ready to get in my last fourteener before the snows hit.
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