Helen and I escaped Denver and joined the mad holiday rush to the mountains on Thursday evening. After dodging auto accidents and stopping for dinner we reached the Half Moon trailhead and started hiking about 7pm. The mosquitoes were relentless as we climbed up towards Half Moon Pass.
From the pass we watched the sun begin to climb down past Mount Jackson across the valley and started our own descent down to East Cross Creek. We had to cross a few snow fields on the way down to our camping site.
Partway down from the pass we were rewarded with our first views of Mount of the Holy Cross. Unfortunately, the cross feature wasn’t visible from this side of the mountain.
We located a flat, but mosquito-infested spot in the trees away from the trail and quickly setup the tent and escaped inside. Torrey didn’t settle down much overnight so neither Helen nor I were well rested when we woke up around 5.
A little after 6am we left camp and crossed the creek and soon I spotted a trail heading south through the woods. Helen, Torrey and I split up here, my goal was to climb the couloir that forms the center post of the cross. Helen would take the north ridge route up to the summit and we’d meet up there.
Numerous trails led through the woods and connected ponds and campsites. I tried to follow the “best” trail, but increasing snow patches made that more and more difficult. At least I could see the mountain through the trees and new I was going roughly in the right direction. After finally clearing tree line I found a boulder field of very large stones to traverse and eventually made it to the Bowl of Tears lake.
From the lake I needed to climb up about 800 feet to find the entrance to the Cross Couloir. On the way I ran into 2 other climbers taking a break. We chatted briefly and then I continued upwards and eventually found the correct place to enter the gully.
Helmet and crampons came out of my pack before I started into the couloir. The snow turned out to be perfect – solid but not icy. Steps were easily kicked into the slope and some old tracks from previous climbers still showed. I re-used a few of their tracks or kicked my own steps on the way up.
Even though I was climbing the couloir, I never had a good view of the feature and wasn’t 100% sure when I passed the arms of the cross. I wasn’t far from the summit when I saw the other climbers had entered the couloir to begin their climb.
The couloir ends directly on the summit, so Helen and two other hikers got to watch me finish the climb and hear me rave about the snow conditions. We admired the views from the summit then prepared to collect a second summit.
Holy Cross Ridge has a 13,831 foot summit just south of Mount of the Holy Cross that qualifies as a separate mountain and is one of the 100 highest in Colorado.
We worked our way down the south side of Mount of the Holy Cross and then started picking our way across the rocks until we reached our second peak of the morning.
When we started our return trip, we kept below Holy Cross’s summit and traversed around the mountain to reach the North Ridge. There we met up with a 6 year old hiker and his father working toward the summit.
Then we continued our descent down the north ridge and back to our campsite, which was still mosquito ridden.
We feared that our hike back up to Half Moon Pass was going to be a hot and uncomfortable endeavor. Luckily, as soon as we had packed up camp and started upwards a slight breeze kept the mosquitoes grounded. Even better, a few clouds blocked the sun occasionally and all of us took advantage of the snow patches to cool off.
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