Trip Report: Mt. of the Holy Cross

Sometimes you just get lucky, and this weekend we had 2 lucky days in a row.
There are some well known 'rules' to climbing 14ers- one of which is to start EARLY. Afternoon thunderstorms and just general crappy weather happens very frequently in the afternoon (typically after 12), and the risks of being above tree line when the weather turns are generally too high- there's just no where to go. However, we decided to ignore those rules.

September 27, 2014

On Friday night, Ryan had tickets to go see a concert in downtown Denver (Ty Segall). We had decided earlier in the week to head to the mountains afterwards, which meant we left the house at 11:45pm. The main impetus for heading west, besides the call of the mountains, was our newly purchased Forerunner and Scamp trailer!! We couldn't wait to spend a weekend in the mountains with our new adventure-mobiles.

After successfully pulling the Scamp for the first time, including up and over Vail pass, we turned down Tigiwon Road, outside of Minturn. We found a spot to park the scamp within a mile of the highway, but it took another hour for us to get the trailer into position, which included the two of us lifting and moving our 2,000lb trailer uphill. Our muscular endurance runner's physique's obviously translates to amazing upper body strength…or not…so yeah-  we went to bed at 3am. No more moving that trailer without the truck!

Waking up comfortable and warm inside the Scamp was amazing- however this also meant we slept in very late, and didn't end up starting our hike until 10:00 am. Despite sleeping in, our bodies still took a while to warm up- which meant lots of nice hiking at the beginning of our climb.

Mt. of the Holy Cross is different than almost every other 14er we've done because the start of the hike involves a climb of 1,200 feet that then drops back down 1,200 feet, only to begin climbing again for 4,000 feet to the summit. This means that on the way back, you have an extra 1,200 foot climb, rather than the typical monster descent to the car.

As we were hiking up and over the first pass, we experienced some amazing views of Fall colors in Colorado

At the top of the first climb, we also got our first views of the mountains we were headed to!

There's Mt of the Holy Cross!

Cody says- Bring it!

After descending 1200 feet back down to 10,400 feet elevation, we had another big slog up to 14,000 feet. This late in the season the creek crossings weren't a big deal. The trail was extremely easy to follow up until the very last climb. We ended up just clambering the last 200-300 feet up whatever rocks we found- maybe there was an official trail, but it was no longer obvious.

The views at the top were amazing- as always!!

After enjoying the views on the summit we began the descent. Typically we can just bomb down the mountain, running as hard as we feel like- but this trail is a bit more technical than others. There weren't any spots that required too much use of our hands, but plenty of care had to be taken to not twist any ankles, or slip off rocks. For that reason, it took a lot longer to get down than normal. One of us also decided to lay down and enjoy the view:

On the final climb back up those last 1,200 feet, Ryan decided to run the whole section. Show off! I took my time, and enjoyed some wonderful light on the aspens.

The final 1,200 feet/1 mile back to the car was finally runnable and all 3 of us charged down, enjoying the feeling of running down a mountain. Man it makes me excited for ski season!!  Overall this was a very fun, very challenging run/hike. We completed the 11.76 miles in 4:57, logging 5,300 feet of total elevation gain.

Advice:
- Most people take 2 days to do this hike, and I can see why- the distance, elevation and technical aspects of this route make it slower than other 14ers.
- There were more big and loose rocks on this hike than other 14ers, making it harder to run down, so sturdier shoes are smart.
- We put Cody's boots on relatively early, since it was pretty rocky- make sure you look out for your dog's paws too!
- Although the first half was shaded, it seemed like we were out of the trees for a while. Cody needed more water on this 14er than any others we've done this summer, despite the relatively mild temperatures.
- Don't do what we did and start at 10:00- we just got lucky on the weather this time!

Garmin Data: