Mt. of the Holy Cross – North Ridge

Date: August 24th, 2008
Elevation: 14,005′
Rank: 52nd
Route: North Ridge, Grade II, Class 1, 12.0 miles, 5525ft vert.
GPS: N 39° 28.083′ W 106° 28.75′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Mike Ross

Pre-climb: I have always been fascinated by Mt. of the Holy Cross ever since I was a kid. I would look at pictures taken in the 1800′s and be amazed that there existed such a mountain. So one would think if I were so impressed by a mountain why hadn’t I climbed it?

Well, the long and the short of it is, that I just didn’t ever get around to it! This mountain is routinely in the news for people getting lost, and turning up dead. Also, this mountain has a huge pass to climb up and over just to get started (1,000ft), and the only road accessing it is closed most of the year. I wanted a partner and I wanted summer trailhead access, and so the timing worked out for this weekend.

Climb: Mike and I finally had a free weekend together, and we left Saturday afternoon to head up to Holy Cross. We didn’t leave Westminster until nearly 4pm, and so we stopped in Vail for a quick bite to eat. (And to pick up more napkins for Mike’s mysterious bloody nose)

By the time we arrived at the trailhead (10,320ft) around 7pm, rainclouds temporarily built up and started to sprinkle on us. We geared up and headed up the pass with the goal of making it to the other side to camp for the evening.

The trail up Halfmoon Pass (11,640ft) doesn’t give a hiker much time to get warmed up. Added to this, (and further complicating the issue), we stopped at McDonald’s and both had Big Macs twenty minutes earlier. Needless to say, my heart wasn’t happy. I think next time I will eat something slightly healthier than McDonald’s mystery meat before hiking.

The sun was setting further behind the clouds and got to the point that when we were at the top of the pass, we couldn’t really see anything, so we had to put on our headlamps. The descent down into the valley was quick and straightforward with the switchbacks. A couple of times we turned off our headlamps just to see how dark it really was. It was scary dark. We couldn’t even see our hands.

We set up camp at around 10,700ft and went to sleep, the temperature was pleasantly warm. Mike had gotten a new tent, and so we tested it out and it worked really well and allowed great ventilation.

Mike’s watch alarm went off at 5am, but we didn’t get up until 5:45a and on the trail until 6a. At first, we thought we were heading the wrong way because we thought the mountains across the way to the west was where Holy Cross was and it looked really far. We wouldn’t discover until on our way out that one could actually see Holy Cross from the pass. (If done in the daytime, ha!) However, I did have my GPS with me and turned it on to establish that we were in fact on the correct trail.

The trail was well established up to the end of treeline at 11,600ft, which we made it to in about an hour from camp. At this point the rest of the route becomes boulder hopping and generally following a faint climbers trail from one cairn to the next.

We arrived at the ridge proper and still hadn’t seen anybody the entire trip. We were kinda surprised because there were plenty of cars at the trailhead.

Finally, we ran into a couple just where the snow started along the ridge. They had camped at 12,000ft and gotten an early start. They said there was only one group ahead of us, and they started climbing at midnight!! That’s six hours ahead of when we started!

We took to walking on the snow at their advice and made quick time because the angle of ascent finally leveled out for a while. Upon reaching the turn up the final summit ridge around where Angelica Couloir is, we took a break and enjoyed the view and the awesome weather that we were having.

Another group came around the Halo Route and was lost, thinking that was a hard route for being standard!

The final 600ft or so up to the summit went much quicker than we thought it would. And for Mike, he flew up it. Finally a group from behind us had caught up with us and I took a moment to chat with them as we arrived on the summit together just before 10am. My final Sawatch 14er! Note to self: I love finishing ranges…

The views from Holy Cross are awesome! One can see all the Elk Range 14ers from the summit. We took a moment to walk down to the top of the Cross Couloir and look down it. It was pretty steep, I’d say 45 degrees or slightly higher. (While reading this online doesn’t sound that steep, but once you’re in it, I’m sure you will think otherwise!)

The trip down was more of the same on any mountain. You see the giant ant trail of people that shouldn’t be on the mountain still coming up the mountain even as the day gets later and later. It just amazes me how little water people bring up for this hike. I used every last drop of my 2L from camp and we were climbing in the cool part of the day!

We arrived back down at camp at 1:30pm, napped and soaked our feet in the cold river, then packed up and left camp around 2:30pm. I was beat. The thought of climbing the 970ft out of the “hole” and back over the pass again made me groan more than once. However, the climbing went much faster than I thought it would, and once on the other side I could relax knowing it was downhill from there. The clouds were finally starting to roll in, but were south of us and were just starting to reach us as we got back to the car.

I can see how a person gets lost on this mountain. There are many drainage’s as your coming off the mountain and if you get into the wrong one, it’s a huge effort to get back to the correct area. I highly recommend this mountain for anybody looking for a more challenging hike, just be prepared and save your legs for climbing over the pass on your way out.

Drive: 3h
Ascent: 5.75h
Summit: 15 min
Descent: 5.25h
Drive: 2.75h
Total: 11.25h