Mt. of the Holy Cross

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 6/23/2025, By: Ryan987
Info: Good to go - some snowfields exists but they were a nice break from talus hopping. Brought spikes but didn't use them. Pic of the couloir in case y'all curious 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 6/22/2025, By: Been_Jammin
Info: Solo’d Cross Couloir today with perfect climbing conditions.Topped out at 8am. Snow was still bomber but warming quickly. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/1/2025, By: Splitboard14ers
Info: If you are thinking of still skiing this peak, don't. Just do yourself a favor and wait till next year, or wait till June 21 when you can drive up to the trailhead and then the hike to the mountain and back might be melted out. Although by then the couloir might not be worth skiing anyway. This is just a very physical and lengthy endeavor in deteriorating conditions. Tigiwon road closed till June 21. Hike is 8 miles to trailhead. Road is clear to trailhead. From trailhead some small piles of snow exist covering Summer trail and patches in the Forrest up to Halfmoon Pass. Snow is slushy and collapses no matter what time of day you approach. From the pass across and down Notch snow was a little firmer at higher elevation and didn't collapse every step when we crossed it very early, but collapsed a lot when we hiked back later in the day. Snow is not consistent coverage, so skinning requires frequent transitions. As you descend down Notch Mountain trail goes back to dry for a short while. On valley floor walking across by stream to North Ridge snow resumes coverage and remains consistent coverage to Summit. Snow was a mix of frozen crust, collapsible slush, and 1-2 inches of fresh snow on top from recent precipitation. We fought through conditions gaining treeline on the ridge, where skinning and booting are both difficult. Once above treeline conditions were solid and the skinning and booting to Summit were very easy, so we made great progress. The final pitch to Summit had a little fresh snow and we easily ascended to reach the Summit. The couloir was in fine form had good snow coverage with the previously mentioned 1-2 inches of fresh powder on top and was soft. After about 500 vertical feet the snow was just wet slush and runnel with no new powder, but still soft, although having some debris in it. We cut out at the exit and did not try to go through the choke *(which is a frozen icefall of about 25 feet at this time). We rode down to the bowl of tears after the exit and the snow was good summer slush. From there we walked a short ways on flat then resumed the ride down. We only got a few hundred feet of riding then transitioned back to skate ski or skins to make our way across the lengthy valley plateau towards the stream where we could regain the trail to Half moon Pass. The distance across was long and the conditions very mixed. We rode some, we skinned some, we hiked some, we down climbed some. There are numerous cliff bands and sections of rocks, and streams to contend with. Finally we down climbed a huge zone of about 300 feet down and reached the low point where we could push another half mile to reconnect with the trail. From there we hiked back up the path and then across Notch to Halfmoon Pass in reasonable conditions. The snow from Halfmoon Pass back through the Forrest to the trailhead was wet and slushy, collapse every step. We finally reached the trailhead, and began the hike back down Tigiwon road. Our timeline was day 1 hiked up from gate closure. We slept on the porch of the Community Hut opting not to sent up a tent at campground by trailhead due to it raining and snowing. Day 2 we started at 2:07am and reached Summit at 9:22am. We reached the Community Hut at 3:30pm, and back down to Tigiwon road gate closure at 6:17pm. It was 16 hours 23 minutes round trip on day 2, with approx 21 miles, and 6,100 vert. 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: gurt1987
Info: Group of 4 started the road walk to Halfmoon TH around 1 pm on Sunday (5/25). There were several small patches of snow on Notch Mountain road starting ~0.5 miles past Tigiwon Community House until the TH. We arrived at the TH ~4 pm. Fairly easy to circumvent snowdrifts and select thinly covered sections of trail for the first 3/4 of a mile. Around 10900', snow was too ubiquitous and soft so we all switched to snowshoes. Somewhere between 11200' and 11400' post-holing in our snowshoes became pretty common until we got to the top of Halfmoon pass (~5:45 pm). For the next 3/4 of a mile there was still plenty of post-holing in snowshoes as we traversed the northside of Notch mountain. It was pretty warm the prior week, so there were only occasional and vague suggestions of ski and/or boot tracks and as a result we overshot some wiggles in the trail and had to route find through the trees until we rejoined the trail around the 2.25 mile mark (from the TH). The rest of the way down Notch mountain was relatively easy and dry so we all stashed our snowshoes; the trail was dry with snowdrifts piling up at the elbows of switchbacks and one or two soft heaps of snow obstructing the straightaway of switchbacks. I think we crossed East Cross Creek (~10700') around 8 pm. Campsite 3 (a sharp right turn immediately after the creek crossing) was covered in uneven snow so we opted for Campsite 4. Site 4 was clear of snow, but it was a little muddy. We all woke up at 3:30 am, set out a little after 4 am. We crossed the stream that drains the pond west of East Cross Creek and that was basically the end of things. We started post-holing (we couldn't be higher than 10800' at that point) as we arrived at the steep ascent out of the valley. We didn't like the route out of the valley and spent time looking for an alternative but eventually turned around due to concerns about possible injuries and time constraints. We made our way back to camp to repack our bags and make the trip out between 6 and 6:30 am. Conditions during the climb out of the valley and back to Halfmoon pass were great. All the snow we post-holed the prior day was nicely crusted and held our weight. As you might expect, the Eastside of the pass was a bit mushy in parts even below treeline, but very manageable even without snowshoes. We took lots of breaks on the way out and started down the road around 10:30 am 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: gusbatcho
Info: Skied the Cross Couloir, ascended via Fall River Trail + Halo Ridge. 24 hours Car to Car with a 3 hour nap in the notch shelter. After skiing the cross I booted back up from the bowl of tears to the notch shelter and exited off notch peak back to the trailhead. Was able to bike 6.5 miles up the road or just .5 miles past tigiwon house. I posted a trip report/youtube video if you want some more info. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/19/2025, By: Christensenje
Info: Biked to mile 6.5. Switched to skinning/hiking to the TH. Spent the night at TH. First half mile of trail to Half moon was slow with transitions in and out of skinning. In the light skiing down back to the TH from Halfmoon on our exit we were able to link the snow a lot better and only took the skis off for a second 1-2 time, but it’s getting thin near the TH. Pretty inevitable you have to hike down the summer trail for the first descent into the valley. It's not worth trying to find a way around with snow and added times for the groups that did try that over just finding the Summer Trail. Switched to skins in the valley, but that was tough navigating for all groups we ran into. Lots of in and out of skinning/booting/post holing. After a bit of suffering, skinning was very manageable again with continuous snow up the north ridge. Last 600 feet back to booting the boulder field. Couloir is in great shape. Had to transition a few times on the exit but mostly were able to link the snow back to the trail again. Getting thin down in the trees though. Just give yourself more time than you think you typically need to summit. We are a pretty fast crew relatively and we just lost so much time navigating in the dark and down in the valley even while being as efficient as possible. TH start was 4:45 am, to 9:30 am summit, to 9:55 am drop into the ski... to put it into perspective. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/3/2025, By: Hunterrrama
Info: Left the trailhead at 3:15 AM on e bikes. Made it about 7 miles up Tigwon road before switching to skins at 4:30 AM. The road was mostly dry for the first few miles, then snow on and off for miles 4-6, then pretty much all snow the rest of the way. The descent down Half Moon Pass was a little spicy. We had to downclimb some scree, it didn't look like a continuous line through that area was in play. Sumitted at 11 am. Conditions were starting to get a bit sloppy by then. Booted up towards the notch and exited by skiing the main couloir off the top. Was able to ski all the way back to the campground. Total time car to car was 13.5 hours. 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 4/24/2025, By: Carl
Info: To add to the conditions report from earlier in the week, we ascended the standard route and skied the cross couloir. Hustled from the summer trailhead to the summit in 4 hours. Continuous snow starting around 3 miles from the winter trailhead, to within a couple hundred vert of the summit. Skied the cross couloir at 10:20 a.m. and it was getting a bit heavy. The couloir is in well, exited at 13k, and found a continuous snow line back to the summer trail where were transitioned to skins. As the previous report notes, the first few miles of the road from the winter trailhead are a mix of dry road and snow so it's tough. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 4/21/2025, By: ccawdrey
Info: First half mile from the winter closure is dirt. Next couple miles are mixed dirt and snow. Following two miles are more snow than dirt. Rest of the route to the summer trailhead is snow. Summer trailhead to half moon pass was uneventful but deep. We put in the skinner on Saturday afternoon before camping on half moon pass. Descending into East Cross Creek after another night of snow was a CF. Choices were cliffs, trees too tight to ski, or sparsely covered talus fields. We eventually made it down and put in another skinner up the North Ridge to ~11,400 before turning on time. A group of two passed us as we were transitioning but they only made it another 200 feet or so vertically before turning as well. We put in a skin track more or less following the summer trail on the way back over half moon. It was marginally better than the route we took down. Ski down from half moon to winter closure was predictably a heavy, gloppy mess. If we had an extra day or left a couple days later this would probably go in spectacular fashion. hint hint. 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 4/9/2025, By: jmanner
Info: Skied the Cross Couloir from the winter closure yesterday. Still plenty of snow from the Winter TH, we put the skis/skins on at the closure gate and toured to 13,650’(could have pushed it to 13,850), the cross couloir skied very well at 9:30, consolidated powder. Plenty of snow to ski out of the basin to the uphill out of the creek basin. It’s a big day without a sled. Edit: added pictures, wouldn’t load at first. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/27/2024, By: pmreyn2010
Info: There is some snow on most of the trail but pretty inconsequential. Brought microspikes but never put them on. Poles were helpful though. Great fall day out there. Obviously conditions will change this week with the upcoming forecast. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/19/2024, By: Will_E
Info: Not much snow on HC, Tigiwon rd is completely dry, trail is dry until reaching treeline. Above treeline snow is inconsequential, easy to get through. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/14/2024, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Route is still bone dry. I'm posting this to warn hikers to follow the large cairns on the upper route. We saw some people taking a loose, exposed route from the top of Angelica Couloir (13,700') directly toward the summit. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/13/2024, By: Agdrummer93
Info: Tigiwon road is in good shape. 2wd is fine unless theres snow. Most pot holes avoidable Trail still in summer conditions. Parking lot 1/3 full at 4:30am on a Saturday but full when I arrived back at 11am. Moving time 5:00 hours and total time 6:45 hours. I trail ran some of the descent and think a moderate paced hiker would be looking between a total of 8-10 hours (subjective, of course). 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/8/2024, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Dry conditions all the way. Tigiwon Rd is in awesome shape! Aspens? Way past peak. Still splotches of color here and there, and a nice carpet of yellow.