My CMC posse on the summit of Holy Cross Ridge (13,831)
L to R: Bobby, Jane, Clare, Fred, Marshall, and Andreas
And an hour later, here we are on Mount of the Holy Cross (14,005 ft)
L to R: Bobby, Fred, Jane, Marshall, Clare, and Andreas
On Friday, I led a Colorado Mountain Club trip on a half marathon loop hike in the Holy Cross Wilderness. With a beautiful weather forecast and an early start, we were bound to have a great day. I was excited about the trip as I had been ruminating about it for months. I was also really psyched to be on the trail with this posse; they are talented, fit, and superb mountaineers!
Our Route:
1. Departure from the Halfmoon Campground at 4:25am.
2. Started hiking south on the Fall Creek Trail at 4:40am.
3. We turned right and headed west up the Notch Mountain trail, hooking up with the Halo route at ~6:00am.
4. Arrive at Notch Mountain Shelter at 8am.
5. We continued heading south and then west to Holy Cross Ridge at 10:50am.
6. From there, we went northeast to Mount of the Holy Cross at 11:50am.
7. Then, we took the standard North Ridge route back to Halfmoon Trailhead, finishing at 4:30pm.
We hiked 13.8 miles, with 5,400 ft of gain, in 12 hours (including several long breaks).
