Mount of the Holy Cross Ski

Peak: Holy Cross
Date: 3/14/09
Climbing Route: Standard Summer route up the north ridge
Skiing Route: Holy Cross Couloir
Distance by foot/ski: 13-14 miles RT
Distance by snowmobile: 16 miles RT
Partners: Joe B.

I had been thinking about skiing Holy Cross this weekend all week. I hadn’t made any solid plans for it, but I started calling the standard list of climbing partners to see who would be interested.

1. “Oh…I’m doing Elbert tomorrow to train for Denali.”
2. “I’m in Canada for business…you wanna do it wed instead?”
3. “Ahh I’m skiing Cameron pass with some friends tomorrow.”
4. “I’ve got an early flight out on Sunday”

Well this just wasn’t looking like it was going to happen. I was kind of bummed because I wanted to do something big before I flew out to Dubuque, IA on Sunday afternoon for business.

Well number 3 called me back and said he was loading up the snowmobile…he was in. I immediately loaded up my sled and got my gear ready for the day.

The next day the plan was to meet at the trailhead at 6:30 AM. Having to make a couple stops, pushed the meeting time back to 6:50 or so and by the time we were done fiddling with the sleds at the bottom, and sledding the 8 miles to the summer trailhead it was 8:20 AM when we started walking…Hey we can move fast right? Hmmm….We’ll see.

Photo: Joe The start of our day.

We made quick work of the mile and a half to 11,640 ft Half Moon pass. A long traverse across a north facing powder field, and we were ready to strip the skins for the 1,000 foot drop in to cross creek.