Mt. of the Holy Cross (8/15)

I got to the trailhead on Friday night and enjoyed numerous "shooting stars" during the Perseid meteor shower before I headed to bed. I woke up as more cars arrived at the trailhead and grabbed my pack and headed out on my first fourteener of two scheduled for the day. The trail was well maintained and not too steep on the way up and then it began to descend to the creek. This descent had me thinking the whole time "this is why this climb has 5600' of elevation gain." I refilled my water from the creek and began pushing ahead and passing all the early risers. This being my 31st 14er in the last handful of weekends, I was a bit more in shape for these types of climbs. Up above the tree line most of the hiking consisted of walking up stone steps that seemed to stretch for quite a while. They were pretty exposed and I assume this is where the sunburn on my neck is from. I passed a trail crew, putting in more of these steps, and topped out on the ridge as I worked my way around to climb the side of Holy Cross and hit the summit. The trail consisted of mostly rock hopping up to the scattered Cairns, but it was essentially just "Aim for the top" style of climbing. I finally reached the peak about 845 and was greeted by a few others who had ascended to the top. I got a couple photos and then saw a protruding ridge down below that jetted out and imagined a great photo on that ridge. So being young, in shape, and always in to a challenge I went ahead and climbed out to that point for the photo shoot. The climb back down the mountain was pretty uneventful like and definitely accentuated by the 1200' of uphill to climb out of the creek basin. Little else took place on the way back to the car and I would describe the hike and the route as PLEASANT overall and one I would definitely do again. This cannot be said for a few of the 14ers that I have done so far. At this point it was mid morning and time to move on to Quandary. 

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