Mt. of the Holy Cross

Route: North Ridge to Halo Ridge
Posted On: 7/14/2026, By: Da Legit Master
Info: Hot, and sunny with no wind. I ended up going through all my water by the time I reached the hut on Halo Ridge. Luckily there were several water sources on the way down. There are two at 11,680'. If going down, use the first source. If going up, use the second. There is another source at 11,080'. All three of these were light flow, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are gone in a week or two. The final source had very strong flow at 10,960'. Quite smokey in the afternoon. Smoke from the willow fire was visible on the way down. 

Route: From Holy Cross City 4×4 Road
Posted On: 7/14/2026, By: CaptainSuburbia
Info: This was a great route to Holy Cross and and it allowed me to tag 13,786 and Holy Cross Ridge on the way and Whitney Peak on descent. Any car can reach the trailhead at French Creek. It took about 45 minutes to reach it from the turn off on 24. Great dirt roads except for a couple mile section on the Homestake road which is washboarded pretty bad. After the 4x4 road there's a nice trail to the beautiful Seven Sisters Lakes. It's then a talus hop to the upper ridge for 13,786 and some steep slaps to reach it's summit. From there to Holy Cross Ridge and Holy Cross it's a mix of talus and exposed Ridge climbing. I didn't see any other climbers until the summit of Holy Cross where I met a nice group from the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra taking a day off from concerts in Vail. It was about 7.5 miles one way, so a bit longer than the standard route but well worth the effort. Some of the views were smoky, especially in the morning, but Holy Cross itself was not smoky. The register on 13,786 needs replaced. Someone even used a bandaid wrapper to leave name. 

Route: Halo Ridge --> North Ridge
Posted On: 6/13/2026, By: GavinUtroske
Info: North Ridge Conditions:
The trail had some snow on it before the final push to the summit, but it is avoidable. Backcountry campgrounds looked to be pretty dry from when I walked by.
Halo Ridge Conditions:
Lots of downed trees at the beginning of the trail. Some of them I could step over, but some areas had super dense amounts of them so I had to find my way around. Snow almost entirely avoidable.
Good conditions out there! 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 6/7/2026, By: soulseeker87
Info: Still goes! snow from the entry point per the dotcom route all the way up to the summit. Boot pack is well established and is still holding even with the super warm temps today. Probably has another couple weeks in it at least. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/7/2026, By: MMAfightingClimber
Info: Pretty much summer conditions, around I’d say a quarter mile snow section between/around 13k-13,300 that is foot tracked. But it pretty close to the cornice overhang. You can bypass it totally on the rocks to climbers right on the way up if you’d rather not mess with it.

Couple small snowfields near treeline that are easily worked around as well. 

Route: Halo Ridge
Posted On: 6/13/2026, By: One Step At A Time
Info: Lots of large fallen trees blocking the trail ~1 mile into the hike. Snow is covering parts of the trail above 13,000 ft but very easy to avoid it. 

Route: Halo Ridge/North Ridge
Posted On: 6/6/2026, By: jdubs
Info: Tigiwon road was in good condition and we camped at the half moon campsite which wasn’t yet open to cars but had plenty of spots.
There was a quarter mile of downed trees early on and snow/mud got slick on the way down. Hiked in trail runners and never put micro spikes on. 

Route: Halo ridge/North ridge
Posted On: 6/6/2026, By: Jschramm87
Info: Some fallen timber to deal with near the start of Fall Creek trail. The approach trails are dry, the Halo ridge route is dry except for a small, flat snowfield that was still firm around 11 am (pic 3). It’s right before the final push up to HC and could be avoided if you wanted to hike around it. The North ridge has soft snow with boot prints. Boulders/rocks parallel this whole section, so this snow could be avoided mostly. There’s also some snow mounds as you drop back down into treeline. You’ll post hole in here, but it’s not that bad. I felt ok in trail runners all day. 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 6/1/2026, By: kelseyd
Info: Whoever set this boot pack, I don't know you. I don't know who hurt you or what you have to prove. But I want you to know, there's another way. Seriously, it was solid but the most aggressive and sustained Tall Man Bootpack I've ever experienced. Every step was an 18" or more step up. C'mon bro, give the little people a chance.

TL;DR couloir still in. Started around 9am, finished around 10 and the snow was firm the whole way up. Approach mostly dry with some small snow patches. Broke out the spikes for a short section on the last slope up to the couloir entrance. Descended the north ridge where things got messy with postholing. 

Route: Up Halo Ridge, Down North Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2026, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Tigiwon road is open for the season! I camped about .25 mile from the TH and got started at 4:00AM on Sunday. Virtually no significant snow to cross on the Halo Ridge route until Peak 13,373. From there, spikes on trailer runners + poles was fine. The North Ridge descent route had significantly more snow than Halo especially below tree line, but not enough to warrant bringing snowshoes in my opinion. I didn't and I occasionally post holed on the descent around 11AM. Just leave early and send it with the sneakers. 14.31 miles / 5,682' gain / 8 hours, 28 minutes 

Route: Cross Couloir
Posted On: 5/25/2026, By: Swerner
Info: Cross Couloir is in! We took the couloir up and standard route down. Continuous snow from about 12,900' right before entering the couloir to the summit. Couloir itself was great, consolidated snow that was getting pretty soft by 9am, but I wouldn't recommend going much later than that - soft snow made it easier to kick steps than ice would have, but the crux had some slipping and sliding near the top. Conditions from the turnoff by the creek to the entry to the couloir were variable, mixture of bushwhacking, snow crossings, rock hopping, and mud. I think skiing out that way would be very unpleasant. Didn't need snowshoes on the way up at all and barely used them going down the standard route (probably would have been better to save the weight and not bring them at all). Very much still spring conditions on the mountain though, lots of postholing throughout the entire day (gaiters recommended). Road was fully clear of snow and plenty of campsites were open at Cross Creek.

For timing info, we started at about 4:20 from Cross Creek camping, entered the couloir at around 8:20, then summited around 9:40. The section from the creek up to Bowl of Tears has difficult routefinding in places. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/25/2026, By: Dignus
Info: There are still some deep sections of angled snow from near the top of Halfmoon Pass down towards the campsites and on the ascent past the creek. Alternates between easily walking on top, to postholing, to kickstepping. I didn't use any traction or flotation but would recommend them if your not as comfortable on steep packed snow. Gaiters were very helpful.
https://youtu.be/tvccXG8CxO0?si=jeJ7un18rMpRzL7E 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/16/2026, By: econner
Info: Tigiwon Road is clear of snow aside from 2 minor drifts about 10-20ft long that were easy to bike through. The road is tentatively scheduled to open May 19 along with others due to low snow. See here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/nfs/files/publication/2026.05.13_EHX_conditions_report_0.pdf

From TH to top of Half Moon Pass, trail runners were fine. Minor post holing, but mostly avoidable on trail. From just out of trees on descent from Half Moon Pass, there was a 0.25 mile section that required flotation and was skiable in the morning (in afternoon it was trapdoor post holing even with skis / skins).

The trail is clear again of snow through the valley across E Cross Creek all the way to ~11,100' on other side. From there skis and skins all the way to 13,300'. I alternated between booting and skinning to stay more ridge proper. The ridge was probably bootable, but flotation still was needed from 11,000 to 12,000 getting out of the trees.

Boots again were fine from 13,300' to the summit. Mostly clear of snow.

The Cross Couloir: the couloir was well-in with plenty of snow all the way to the exit into Bowl of Tears, but the conditions were variable. Various debris in the couloir and chunky heavy snow, rutted in places. Challenging skiing.

After the exit from the couloir, there was basically no snow to ski aside from 100ft patches here and there. I was able to link patches, but for the most part it was a down climb to the lake.

More of the same after that. The trail to the lake is non-existent until maybe 0.5 mile from the junction with the main trail. I diligently followed GPS trying to find the trail, but I can see why many maps don't show it.

Unfortunately the exit conditions were that horrible sweet spot: not enough snow for continuous use of flotation, but still plenty to post-hole. Catch-22. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 2/8/2026, By: Skimo95
Info: Solo push to summit. Good skin up to halfmoon pass but terrible riding down the pass to creek on the winter variation. I should have took more time to choose a better line to be fair. Sugar snow from pass to creek, good skinning from creek to tree line. Bonked out super hard just below tree line and started dragging the remainder of the trip. Wound up summiting just after dark, and everything was in slow motion after that. Plunge stepped down the remainder of the skin track I put in very slowly. Ascended the normal summer switchbacks after confirming snow pack to my own personal comfort level. Regained the pass after putting in another skin track just after sunrise, rode down to summer th and got off the road in decent time the following morning. Only used splitboard, poles, and briefly spikes. Due to bonking out early and running low on fluids this turned out to be a 30+ hour saga. This mountain is truly a beast in winter time and it kicked my butt. Will do better on preparation before the next mission for sure! It was nice to see a couple familiar faces on the way out. Per iPhone Gaia 26.54mi and 7,931’ 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 1/4/2026, By: nmedica
Info: Continuous snow from the winter parking area. The summer route is relatively trenched in and leads up to a wind-scoured ridge line with intermittent thigh-deep drifts and a lot of post-holing/talus terrain.