Mount of the Holly Cross: Standard route
Last weekend a group of friends and I decided to go hike Mount of the Holly Cross the 14er between Leadville and Minturn. It is listed as a moderate summer hike, although long and lots of elevation gain there is no technical skills needed it was class 2 & 3 the whole way.
We all meet up at the 1-70 cut-off outside of Morrison on Friday evening and piled into my buddies big S.U.V. for the trek out to Minturn. There ended up being 6 of us and a dog. It was a cozy ride especially when the hound decided it no longer wanted to ride in the back, but that the seat looked more comfortable.
Sardined in we arrived at the trailhead around 9:45. There was no camping sited available so we just pitched a few tents next to our car in the busy parking lot. As we fell asleep a group of 3 hikers was setting out to catch a sunrise summit. In the early hours of the morning I heard a few groups of hikers heading out before we left at 6:00am.
The trail starts out really nice winding up through the woods to the top of Half Moon pass, which is a really mellow hike. Then it drops down the ridge to the creek, where there are at least 3 or 4 campsites. As you make your way down the backside of Half Moon pass Mount of the Holly Cross comes into view and you can see the massive scree field that you will have to journey up to reach the top. Also you can see the Angelica Couloir. which at this time had no snow in it.
As you reach the bottom of the pass you have to cross over Half Moon creek this is about 1/3 of the way to the top, but also the easiest part of the day. From here the trail starts to make its way back up the adjacent ridge and eventually above timberline. Almost instantly as you step out of the trees you are presented with a giant chose pile which is your route to the top.
Going through scree and boulder hopping is never something I find enjoyable to do for hours but this Mount of the holly Cross makes it extra difficult because there are hardly any cairns along the way so you are more or less just following the best route that you think you can find. You do this following the ridge up what is the false summit, although you know this most of the time because you can see the top off to your left. When you reach the top of the ridge, this is also the top of Angelica, you are almost at the top it is just another 15 minutes or so following the summit ridge. This is the steepest part of the hike along with the largest boulders and some easy 3rd class moves are needed.
As we reached the top I thought that we were coming up onto a false summit but was pleasantly surprised to find out we had made the top. From the top you have an amazing view. You can see the Maroon Bells, Capital and Pyramid to the west, and as you look south you can see the ski resort, Ski Cooper and Mount Elbert.
The hike back down was slow going as you make your way through the scree. Be careful on the decent as I saw a few groups wandering around below the scree looking for the trail. Keep your eyes peeled for the 2 giants cairns that you passed on the way up, they lead you back to the trail into the tress and were made this big for a reason.
As you come back down to Half Moon creek you have to hike back up about 700’ to the top of the pass, but it is not a bad hike especially after coming off all of the scree it is a nice change. From the top of the pass it is just a short distance back to the car.
This was a good hike overall although scrambling through scree is not something I enjoy much, I would much rather just find a snow path or rock wall and climb up. It took us about 10 hours exactly to get up and down but we were also taking our time, I imagine that it could comfortably be done in under 8.5 hours.
Also congrats to Jared and Sadie for their 1st 14ers ever, this was a challenging one to start out with.
Cheers!
