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.
Skinning…
photo: Joe More Skinning
Half Moon pass
The traverse
photo: Joe Looking back on the traverse
photo: Joe Eyes on the target
The skiing on this west facing terrain proved miserable, ranging from solid hardpack to punchy breakable crust (good thing we aren’t pinheads). After navigating around a couple of cliffbands we found ourselves at the bottom of the descent with around 3,300 vertical to go to the summit.
We stuck the skins back on, and headed on up through some pretty cool pillow top country.
Pillow land
photo: Joe
The trail breaking up the north ridge was deep ranging from 8 to 16 inches or so of fresh powder. As much work as this was, it was good motivation thinking about what the couloir might hold. Just below treeline, we stopped and broke out the Jetboils for a quick ramen snack.
Off again, we gained treeline somewhere between 11,600 and 11,800.
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
We managed to keep skinning for a good while before wind scowered rocks made us throw the skis on the pack for a few hundred vertical.
photo: Joe Booting
photo: Joe What a nice day…Could have had shorts on.
Upon cresting the first plateau in the ridge we put the skis and skins back on until the final push to the summit.
photo: Joe Almost there
What a view!
The last 500 feet to the summit block consisted of talus hopping (fun in tennis shoes…somewhat tipsy and tedious in ski boots).
photo: Joe
Just when I had enough I popped over the last couple boulders and found myself greeted by the summit block with some guy named Joe sitting on top. And what surrounded the summit block? Snow. Not just snow. Powder snow. This must be a dream I thought, powder on top of a 14er? Too weird.
photo: Joe
photo: Joe What is that pack pointing at?
I feel as though it is somewhat important to tell you that this is the first 14er I climbed in winter with my father 11 years ago (I was 12).
Sitting on the summit block, I remember sitting in the exact same place with my old man when I was just a child, looking back at the Halo Ridge route we had climbed, and realizing we would have to do it again (go back over the 3 or 4 13ers that is). If you have no idea what relevance this has, read here.
Ok enough with the flashback. Joe had decided to walk down and take a look at our descent route of the cross couloir. As he came walking back to the summit he had a big ol’ grin on his face, and he looked almost a bit fidgety. “This could be the best one yet.” Or something to that effect. Powder! Lots of Powder!
This of course got me excited. Powder plus bluebird day plus skis equals sheer bliss. We finished the Ramen and packed up. This is the first time since sunrise that I would put a jacket back on (I had been wearing just a T-shirt since sunrise).
photo: Joe Well I don’t think getting her from the summit will be a problem…
photo: Joe Dropping in
photo: Joe
The first turns off the summit were incredible considering we were on a 14er. Having checked the CAIC website religiously all week, and seeing a LOW rating for the area, we felt reasonably good about the avy danger. Standing at the steep drop in to the Couloir, I jumped with all my might and 225 lbs to see if I could make something move. Nothing but sluff, no settlement, no nothing. 2 or 3 hard ski cuts later and we were feeling great about the situation.
photo: Joe
I dropped first. It was a solid 400 hundred vertical of boot top to knee deep powder skiing before I got to the first safe zone that seemed fit for stopping.
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
The first thing I noticed skiing down the line was that the sluff was a little weird to manage, I ended up skiing way out left at one point to let the freight train pass.
Joe followed and stopped in the same place:
Both of us had ear to ear grins on our face. Powder skiing on a 14er just doesn’t happen often enough. I led again to the next safe zone.
photo: Joe Skiers snorkel
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
Joe:
At this point we hop-scotched and Joe took the lead. Skiing our newly deposited sluff pile was incredible skiing all the way to the exit above the cliffed out bottom of the chute.
Joe:
Jordan:
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
Joe taking us to the exit above the cliff:
Upon exiting the chute we were greeted to the more “normal” winter conditions of bullet proof and/or breakable crust down to the valley floor.
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
We skied out to a spot where we had to climb over a hump (we skinned up), and then stripped the skins off again for some powder skiing down to our track from the morning.
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe
photo: Joe Do I look like a green giant?
At this point in the day, the last thing you have the desire to do is climb another 1,000 vertical up, but that’s the way out. We slapped the skins back on the skis and began the arduous task of breaking trail through a range of conditions including powder, corn, breakable crust and my personal favorite, rotten snow.
photo: Joe
We reached halfmoon pass around sunset and skied the 1.5 miles out to the sleds.
photo: Joe No more climbing today…
This may have been the scariest skiing all day; skiing breakable crust through dense woods. For those of you unfamiliar with breakable crust, it makes it incredibly hard to make a solid turn without burying a tip and going ass over teakettle. We skied all the way (with very small exception) to the waiting snowmobiles. Arriving around 7:45, this made for a 11.5 hour day. At this point a high-five was in order. We made it! Another 14er ski in the bag, and under some of the best conditions either of us have skied on one of the top 54 or so peaks in CO.
The 8 mile sled ride to the trucks went without incident, and before we knew it we were at Chilly Willy’s in Minturn eating wings, burgers, taco’s and drinking a good old dos equis.
I’m not sure how many times Joe mentioned that he was glad I talked him in to the day on a great peak, but all I can say is: “I didn’t hate it.” (tagline stolen from Colby Christoff)
Thanks for Reading:
JW