Mount Princeton

Both my father and I had long wanted to climb Mount Princeton. The mountain rises from the Arkansas River valley with a commanding presence as you drive south on 285. It’s central summit is flanked by two equal ridges lending stature to the peak. I remember wanting to climb it the first time I saw that view on a winter drive to Ouray.

We debated about which route to take up the mountain, and in the end we decided the standard route would be the best option for us. With only my 2WD, high clearance vehicle, we were able to reach the “4WD” parking area, saving us around 2,000 vertical feet and 3+ miles one way. Still, we had over 3,000 feet to climb to reach today’s summit.

The first part of our hike followed the road to about 12,000 feet.

The morning was already warm and sunny when we started out at 7:45am. We followed the switchbacks of the road and were gladdened to see a few snow patches to help us and Torrey cool off.

We branched off the road and followed a foot path to the other side of the south east ridge.

From here on out the trail was built across a slope of rocks and we had a view towards the summit.

Eventually, we ascended directly up to the ridge crest where we were rewarded with views of Mount Antero to the south of us.

Now we would stick mostly to the crest of the ridge as we worked our way to the top.

Once on the summit we looked south past Antero to see Shavano, which we’d climbed the weekend before. I was also glad to finally climb a mountain with my father (his 4th 14er) after all the lower state highpoints we’d visited years ago.

From the summit it was apparent that the weather was turning and the clouds were starting to build up vertically. We didn’t stay long and soon began our descent. We dropped off the top of the ridge sooner on the way back down and found plenty of loose rock to traverse slowly across.

Helen and Torrey pushed ahead to the last big snow field on the route – Torrey was getting hot and needed to cool down. My dad and I eventually caught up with them and we all continued back together. Along the way we saw several marmots and pikas – which Torrey took a great interest in. Once we cleared the rocks we admired several species of wildflowers including these mountain bluebells.

Partway down the road section it started to rain and hail on us. We caught up to two other hikers right at our car who had parked at the lower trailhead. Working on improving my karma store I offered them a ride back down to the bottom.

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Mount of the Holy Cross

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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