Antora Peak

Antora peak

Snow climb of Antora peak on Saturday, 2023/5/06. I drove down from the Front Range after work on Friday and was able to get to N38.38061 W106.16246 before the road was blocked by snow drifts and fallen trees. Arriving at 8:28 pm, i camped in my truck to get up at 3 am. My first overnight trip of the season was not the fastest to get going, at 4:24.

The road was mostly melted out to the bend in the road near the Silver Creek trailhead. It was fast traveling with the setting almost-full moon, enough where i  scared a beaver in the creek. Be careful to follow the trail from Silver Creek TH to The Gate (rock cliff at the entrance to the valley), where the public access crosses private land. There is a public bridge across the creek before The Gate.

I reached the first couloir at 5:32, col. 2 at 5:48, and col. 3 at 6:04 The area here has lots of aspens, might be nice for an autumn visit. I bailed from the trail near N38.35837 W106.20791. Look for the dam near N38.35744 W106.20801 to cross the creek.

Col. 4 and col. 5 may be accessed by ascending the drainage at N38.35395 W106.20995. From there I instead followed the lower angle drainage to the base nearest Antora. It was a double drainage, where i alternated between parallel creeks - whichever had better terrain and stable snow for snow shoeing. The approach opens up to give a view of the snow ahead at N38.33631 W106.22126. I put on crampons at 9:21 to start ascent from N38.33537 W106.22076 at.11603'. I topped out at 11:52 on a lower angle opening in the cornice at N38.33121 W106.22373 at 12682'. Angles along the way ranged from 26.2 (base), to 44.9 (mid), to low 50's degrees (at the top). The angles were sustained low 40 degrees after about halfway up. The snow was stable, with some stretches of very hard snow allowing limited front pointing and use of axe and tool in dagger orientation. I followed on the line of snow/cornice to reach Antora summit at N38.32495 W106.21837 at 13222' at 1:08 pm. With cool temperatures, the foecast showed no chance for convective weather. After taking photos and a break, i departed Antora summit at 1:38.

I retraced some of my way up, but went down to the saddle between Antora and Sheep mt. After taking off crampons, i summited Sheep mt. at 2:36. I descended col. 5 to enter the drainage at 4:24. The snow was OK here until the Junction with col 4. While the cool weather that day kept the snow more solid, the last 0.5 miles to the combined col. 4, col. 5, and col. 6 was slow going, with a fair amount of post holing and forest navigation. I reached the combined drainage at 5:15, the dam at 5:30, and the trail at 5:40. Taking off my snowshoes at the dam, i often plowed through soft snow (now below the true snow pack) followed by exposed trial, i reached The Gate at 6:20, then my truck at 7:09. A jeep or side-by-side had driven almost to Silver Creek trailhead, which made it straightforward to travel through any snowdrifts down the road to my truck. I did see moose prints in the mud on the road, foreshadowing the moose having breakfast across the creek from me the next morning.

LInk to album of photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/19047247@N04/albums/72177720308186615