Holy Cross route recommendation.

[skyrme17]

I feel the Halo Ridge class rating far underestimates the difficulty. Once on the ridge you'll have to route find and navigate 2 miles of boulders and slabs, going up and down three 13ers. When I did it, while on the ridge it suddenly started to snow and hail (not in the forecast). The terrain became very slippery, which slowed me down considerably. Compared to the standard route, this route can be far more consequential if there is unexpected weather.

[LarryM]

Late to respond to this, and I imagine that OP has already done it, but on the topic of Halo Ridge. I did it a little more than a month ago. It took far longer that I felt it should have (and prompted a thread about fitness for the older athlete), but I wouldn't call it "hard" per se:

-it took a long time for me because of fatigue issues + slow on the down hills as I get older (66 YO) + under-fueling, but

-it was not technically challenging (and this coming from someone who is not particularly accomplished on technical terrain). It's class 2+, but on solid rock and not exposed. Ironically the most annoying section for me was getting down to tree line from the summit of Holy Cross, which of course you need to do on the standard route.

-I didn't find the climb back up to the pass particularly arduous (we did it clockwise).

-I have to disagree with the comment about the route being confusing. Route finding wasn't an issue at all for us.

-it's just such a gorgeous route - the highlight of the route is the ridge which you miss entirely if you take the standard route.

-the ONLY downside IMO is that it is quite committing. If afternoon thunderstorms are in the forecast, probably avoid the ridge unless you get a super early start and / or are very fast hikers/runners.

[_Landgraff]

Anyone been up there recently? I'm planning a solo summit for the 12th of July and I'm not sure what the conditions of the couloir look like, I'd like to bootpack the couloir if it looks stable and then take the standard route down, thoughts?

I hiked the Halo to standard loop on 7/5 and there’s very little snow in the couloir; I’ll try to add a picture if I can figure out how to resize it!IMG_4849.jpeg

Made it up and down safely on the 11th, I'm hoping to improve my fitness before coming back and attempting to bootpack and ski it in the future, my summit via Halo Ridge on the 11th ending up taking longer than I wanted. The weather was fantastic that Saturday though!

[Marcos]

Another +1 for Halo up / North Ridge down if you have the weather for it.

• It was nice to spend the night at Notch Mountain shelter, but that meant we had to carry sleeping gear over the summit.

• Once past the shelter you won't have great bailoff options, at least in helpful directions.

• There was more rock-hopping than I expected from the map, but not much scrambling.

• Views from Halo are better than on the standard route, IMO.

Halo202409.jpg

Halo202409-3.jpg

Halo202409-2.jpg