Ascent of Mt
Antero and North Carbonate,
by Steve Bremner,
Jonathan Cavner,
and Sam the
Wolfdog,
on May 7th,
2000
Sawatch Range,
Colorado
Jonathan Cavner, I and Sam the Wolfdog went up Mt Antero and North Carbonate on Sunday, May 7th via the Baldwin Gulch trail. We made an attempt to 4-wheel drive it up to the usual 4-wheel drive parking area, but there was too much snow on the road so we turned around and parked at 9420', just off Chaffee County road 162. A small ATV made it up to the 10,840' level, though it couldn't go higher because of the snowpack.
That said, the snow really wasn't that bad. We didn't wear snowshoes and Jonathan even wore running shoes.
The road seemed to hold a lot of snow, so as soon as we'd spotted Antero we left it and gained the ridge to our left. Traversing left of point 12,772 we then gained the ridge to Antero and cakewalked to the summit. A bit of wind made things interesting.
North Carbonate is a more aesthetically pleasing mountain than the big rockpile Antero. It looked like a big inverted snowcone. The way up from Antero is obvious, but it seemed longer and more difficult. A false summit at the last made it seem even more so. We started down the north ridge off N. Carbonate, but after only a short ways decided to go the fast and easy way down. Sliding on our backsides we dropped 2,000 feet down a perfect snow glissade lasting at most five minutes. Trudging back in line with the 4-wheel drive road required some postholing through deep snow in woods, but still not enough to warrant the snowshoes.
Total Time: 8 hours