Mt. of the Holy Cross

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 5/17/2020, By: cottonmountaineering
Info: Can bike up to q couple switchbacks before the ranger station, mostly snow covered from that point on, some of the steep descent into cross Creek basin has melted but still a pain getting down and up. Great skiing conditions 

Route: Cross Couloir/North Ridge
Posted On: 11/15/2019, By: drhunter1986
Info: Road clear all the way to the TH! 4X4 with snow tires recommended though. Climbed Cross Couloir and descended the North Ridge. Lots of unconsolidated and sugary snow all over the mountain. Luckily, its not very deep and there is a nice boot pack from the TH to the start of the north ridge. Get it before the road closes November 22nd! 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 10/14/2019, By: ZeroDark30
Info: Road to the TH had a light dusting of snow and was easy to access. The trail up to the hut had several inches of snow and there was patchy snow between the talus on Halo ridge. Most of the ridge was wind scoured and free of snow. The descent down the standard route had several inches in snow in some places and was snow packed and occasionally slippery. We had spikes but didn't use them. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/14/2019, By: Tlorbets
Info: Light snow pack/ some ice patches 70% of the way, especially below treeline. Ridge to summit good conditions, no spikes needed. Unless we get another snow fall definitely bring spikes. Only seen 6 people all day. :) 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/7/2019, By: apasquel
Info: Dry all the way to summit. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/5/2019, By: 4x4more
Info: Very cold and windy up the North Ridge and at the peak. Dry, dress for winter. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 9/29/2019, By: Old Hickory
Info: Very strong winds above 12,000 feet. Hiked to the Shelter this morning as a warm-up to the North Ridge route tomorrow. I also wanted to get a taste of Halo Ridge and started to head to Pt. 13,248. Made it about 50 feet before I went back to the shelter and decided to leave. Tomorrow's forecast says southwest winds 35-45 with gusts as high as 65! Think I'll skip. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/30/2019, By: cshill24
Info: Windy at the top of the ridge to the summit. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 9/26/2019, By: supranihilest
Info: I took a slightly modified route, going from Holy Cross Ridge to Point 13,768 and then skirting under Holy Cross Ridge's summit on the west side, so I didn't have to fully reascend Holy Cross Ridge. This wasn't terribly difficult. Once at the Mount of the Holy Cross/Holy Cross Ridge saddle there's more of the ubiquitous Class 2 granite talus/boulders but the angle of ascent is lower and there's some open dirt to walk across. It's a quick jaunt to the summit. Descending the north ridge takes a while but the trail is good for the most part. The upper slopes are a bit undefined but there are large cairns and in some places big logs sticking up to mark the trail. I didn't feel like there was any way to get lost going down Cross Creek drainage instead of going through East Cross Creek up to Half Moon Pass, but nonetheless be sure you don't get lost in this area. The trail is good and you can tell you're on the right one when you pass 10 numbered campsites en route to the trail back to the pass. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/26/2019, By: jthn
Info: This is a fine route, physically challenging but beautiful the whole way. The extra 900 ft back up to Halfmoon Pass, although annoying, was really not that bad. The talus slope to the summit is a long slog but whoever was on the trail crew that added all the steps and cairns, I'd buy any of you a beer for all that work. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/15/2019, By: Kylerranders
Info: Great late summer summit. Started around 3:15AM and was able to summit with no problem. Quite a few people for late season but no issues with snow, hail, or rain. Weather was perfect. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 9/15/2019, By: madmattd
Info: Long day, took us a little under 10 hours car to car, and we got to the shelter in 2hr15min or thereabouts. The ridge is just slow going, almost the whole way is large and often awkward talus-hopping that really only relents once you get a couple hundred feet off the summit of Holy Cross on the North Ridge. Many sources put Halo Ridge from shelter to Holy Cross summit at 2-2.5mi, but we measured a solid 3+mi on the GPS that usually agrees closely with published distances, and it felt every bit of it or more. The ascent of Half Moon Pass was annoying after a long day but on good trail with ample switchbacks and honestly it was one of the easier parts of the day. This is a big day, much harder than the standard route in our opinion. The Class 2+ rating listed on this site feels correct, the worst stretch is from between the shelter and the first 13er (13,248') to the false summit on the way up Holy Cross Ridge (the Centennial), the rest is typical Class 2 talus or on trails. Stunning views all day, and a good weather forecast for this trek (NOAA nailed the weather to the minute, complete with the cloud cover numbers). No trail condition issues, the maintained trails are in great shape and the stair work on the North ridge is impressive. Massive, easily seen cairns leaving the summit, complete with white rock topper to make finding them amongst the rock fields easy, fairly unusual in CO. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/27/2019, By: mattpick
Info: Dry conditions the whole way up, no snow. No microspikes/gaiters needed. Plan was to hike into East Cross Creek campground, get to bed early and wake up to summit at sunrise. We left TH at 2pm and got to camp in 1.5 hours (which we thought would take longer). There are 10 campsites at the creek. Half were open by the time we arrived, but all were taken by nighttime. Setup camp and had 4 hours before sundown. Ended up deciding to do a sunset summit since it's 3 miles from campsite to summit and we got really lucky with the afternoon weather as there were clear skies / no chance of storms or rain. Hit some stronger wind on the ridgeline, but weather was in the 40's up at the top and the wind had subsided. We summited at 7pm and spent 30 minutes up there in complete bliss. Good amount of cairns and trail was pretty easy to spot, came down slow with headlamps and made it back to camp by 9:30pm. Slept in and hiked out the next morning. Lots of filterable water near campsite at the creek. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 8/26/2019, By: Mitsugi
Info: Summer conditions. Really no snow save for a couple cornices. No spikes needed. No gaiters needed. Be warned, this loop is very brutal. Be ready for a very hard day. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/2/2019, By: piopti
Info: Trail is dry. Some snow off to the side. Bit of a scramble at the top. Trail is very obvious except at the top scramble where you do a lot of finding your own way guided by periodic cairns.