After a few weeks of waiting, we finally got into the meat and potatoes (just potatoes for Kate because she’s a vegetarian) of our work season. Hiking, digging, and lugging around rocks above tree line on a backcountry mountain trail! We set out last Saturday for a five-day hitch in the Holy Cross wilderness, home to Mt. of The Holy Cross.
Named for the crucifix shaped snowfield that collects on its northeast face, Holy Cross is the northern-most fourteener in the Sawatch range and, in my humble opinion, the range’s most beautiful peak. As you summit Half Moon pass on the standard approach route and make your way around a rocky ridgeline, the prominent granite spire suddenly appears, dominating the view all the way down to East Creek. The Half Moon Pass route then begins to ascend again, gaining, 5,000 feet from trail head to summit, with a scramble from the mountain’s north ridge up to the summit.
Unfortunately, the Half Moon Pass Route is in bad shape, especially above tree line where erosion and numerous braids have led to a confusion of social trails which can lead climbers in the wrong direction off trail, especially on the descent. This is where we concentrated our work efforts. We spent our time building structures to check erosion on the trail and clearly define a sustainable route up the mountain. These included check steps (set across the trail to hold back soil) of various sizes, sets of stairs, water bars for drainage, and rip rap (piled rock to deter hikers) to close out braids and social trails.
We also made contact with close to 2o hikers each day. Some were well prepared (plenty of water and food, solid boots.) Others were not (one water bottle, tennis shoes without socks, dogs off leash.) On our last day, we had a whole train of hikers that followed the leader off trail and accidentally cut across the tundra to the area of the trail we were working, instead of following the established route down the ridgeline. All this even after our peak steward Kate told almost everyone that passed to take precaution on the descent and watch closely for the FIVE FOOT CAIRNS! that are apparently easy to miss.
We’ll be back to Holy Cross later in the season, as will the Adopt-a-Peak crew. We’ll most likely continue to work our way up the North Ridge route, making improvements and hopefully diminishing the confusion that led to the tundra stomping we saw this past week!
On a final Leave No Trace note, one of the hikers we talked to told us that he threw a Frisbee off the top of the peak and caught it on video. “Dude! It was awesome!” Please don’t do these things.
-Hot Shots
