Sun, Jul 12 2015 - Holy Cross Mountain (View Event Details) Event Coordinator(s): (To see who coordinated the hike, log in to the Member Area) Participants: (To see who hiked, log in to the Member Area)

Write Up:
When I left my home at 6:30 in the morning I was greeted by bangs of thunder and a downpour. Not a good day to go scrambling! Yet all 11 people who signed up for the trip showed up at the meeting place and were eager to go to the mountains. The first section of the hike on a trail up Gunnery Creek was pleasant enough. By the time we arrived at Gunnery Pass the light drizzle changed to light rain, the ground was soaked wet, and there was a risk of more rain and even thunderstorm later in the day. After discussing three options, all members of the group voted to scale down our ambition from Holy Cross Mountain to Gunnery Mountain, which is actually the first summit in the south ridge of Holy Cross Mt. We traversed to Gunnery Notch on wet, steep grounds, reaching a good trail just below the pass. The trail is good through the pass but seems to disappear on the slopes of either side of the pass. We followed the broad ridge to the summit of Gunnery Mountain where we had a lunch at a sheltered spot with good views in all directions through photogenic limber pines. Gunnery Mountain falls in cliffs and scree to the highway but we descended on the more moderate SW ridge at the edge of the cliffs, occasionally detouring into aspen woods. By this time the weather improved and was quite pleasant. We completed the loop by walking for about 1 km on the highway back to Eyrie Gap where our cars were. According to Jim’s GPS the distance was 9.4 km and cumulative elevation gain was 854 m. Peter Minarik