Mt. of the Holy Cross

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 5/26/2013, By: tygrubb
Info: This picture was from taken from quite a ways away (summit of Pettingell Peak) but the Cross Couloir looks like it is still in pretty good condition. Not sure when Tigiwon Rd opens but this might be on the docket for next weekend. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 3/8/2013, By: FireOnTheMountain
Info: Didn't actually do this peak but heres a shot of the standard route lookin pretty avy safe (at least above treeline). Don't let this fool you, the basin will have a lot of snow. 

Route: Halo Ridge Up and Standard Down
Posted On: 11/20/2012, By: pooree
Info: Got my 1991 Camry with snow tires to the TH with no issues. Trail is easy to follow below tree line with about 8-12 inches of snow on the ground. Not many signs of use. (we broke the trail) Ridgeline is hard to stay on summer trail but the route is pretty self explanatory. Decending the standard route it is easy to follow carins down the ridge but we lot the trail at tree line. We eneded up scrabbling up the side of half moon pass via head lamp before we ended up finding the trail again. Once back on the "standard" trail there were obvious signs of use and it was easy to follow. It only got easier the closer we got to the car. 

Route: Halo and North
Posted On: 10/21/2012, By: capetrekker
Info: This might be my last 14er of the season and it was a great one. Conditions on Holy Cross are great right now. Hiking the North Ridge there was snow all the way up until 13k. The snow varies from an inch to 8 inches but was only a minor inconvenience and did not hinder my climbing efforts. I would highly recommend Microspikes for the traverse. We hiked Halo Ridge down which was in great condition with a few inches of snow from the shelter all the way back to the trailhead. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/8/2012, By: Stamper2773
Info: Climbed today and the route is mostly dry. Above 13,500‘ you will run into some snow and ice. I did not use microspikes, but it would have provided nice traction. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 10/9/2012, By: Lamb
Info: We went up Halo Ridge, but could also speak for North Ridge. There is very little snow, I was fine in light insulated leather boots and good socks. Skies were clear. There was plenty of wind and sometimes a shift of weather up to 40+ deg F so layers were critical. Tigwon was clear, but there was some traffic due to firewood gathering. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 10/2/2012, By: metalmountain
Info: Just in case anyone is curious, this pic is from Saturday. I assume some will have melted out but this week could change that. It was pretty much consistent snow along the trail all the way from this point to the summit and almost back to treeline. Along the he approach to Holy cross ridge the snow got a little deeper, I would say 6 inches or so and deeper in some drifted areas. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/19/2012, By: tjerasdave
Info: Earlier post is spot on. Summer conditions on the route with a little mud and avoidable patches of snow. Beautiful hike but don‘t underestimate the reaccent of HMP. It‘s a butt kicker. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/18/2012, By: sheller
Info: As we were climbing in the morning we got snowed on and got about 2-4 inches we had to hike through to reach the summit. The snow had all melted by the time we started heading back down and if there is any snow left it would only be on the final climb, but I doubt it will stick along for much longer. We did get a view of Elbert and Massive and they appear to have a bit of snow on the peaks. Holy Cross is still open for business until the next big storm sweeps in. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 9/17/2012, By: krs1
Info: Did a quick lap (6.5hrs) of the Tour de Holy Cross...Utilized the Halo Ridge for the ascent and the North Ridge for the descent. Everything was dry as of 8PM last night. Was hoping to see some snow in the Cross Couloir, but still dry. The aspens on Tigiwon Rd. were pretty close to prime. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 9/14/2012, By: desertdog
Info: We climbed Holy Cross and descended Halo Ridge route yesterday in perfect conditions. There was no snow on the mountain, which was interesting because because many of the other peaks in the Sawatch got some the day before. The folks at CFI have been hard at work, and the trail up to the summit was almost a walk up. Taking the Halo Ridge Route down provided some adventure, and is well worth including in your climb. This route down will add significant time. We left the HC summit at 10am and reached the Notch Shelter at around 1:30pm. We found sticking to the top and a little right of the ridge line was better than dropping too far down into the basin. I must admit Halo Ridge took much longer than we thought it would. Our start time was 4:30am and we finished around 5pm. A great day in the mountains! 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/26/2012, By: Rcizzle
Info: The Northern Sawatch/Holy Cross Range has been dueshhhhed (new word for a lot of rain) as well as most White River NF. As a result Stage II restrictions have been lifted in WRNF. There was significant amount of puddle action. Should have little to no effect on hiking depending of your shoe preference. The up coming drying trend "should" change that. In other MOTHC news the CFI has been working hard on the route above 12K. The newly installed stone steps made the mountain climbing experience on MOTHC much more pleasurable. I dubbed it the "Staircase to Heaven". The CFI crew made progress up to roughly 12,600 by my best estimation and informed me they plan to go up to the "final summit push" wherever that is. After passing their work zone the remaining climb was not near as pleasurable it had been. Routefinding for broken trail segments is slightly difficult to the summit. Happy climbing. RC 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/19/2012, By: mspalding
Info: The trail is well marked to the Angelica Couloir. CFI has added orange and yellow plastic markers among the rocks along the ridge. The final slope has some cairns and most of the trail is near the edge. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/16/2012, By: ezabielski
Info: Route was in extremely good shape after rain the night before. River crossing can be done without getting wet if you‘re careful not to slip. I would not consider this a class 3 scramble unless you really try to make it class 3. I didn‘t have to use my hands in most places. Poles were helpful for steep up and down sections on the main trail. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/3/2012, By: tanyaco4
Info: The trail was dry throughout and a very hot day. I really think this trail should be rated a class 3 the scrambles to the top are very steep and it‘s at least 2000 ft in vertical gain over the scrambles. Spent a long time climbing with all fours, I never carried poles but think its a good idea on this hike. This is a very long, strenuous hike to complete in one day. I would recommend camping at cross creek and completing it in 2 days. Beautiful hike it took us 12 hrs roundtrip to complete after a 30 min break at the summit. We were lucky there wasn‘t any storms. I hiked Longs Peak two summer‘s ago and this hike ranks up there with that one but not nearly as technical however the boulder field is a challenge.