The Holy Cross Wilderness Traverse

Camille Rohrlich is a 2023 Adventure Grant recipient. With the goal to become more familiar with the nearby Holy Cross Wilderness outside her home in Vail, CO, she created and attempted an original backpacking route that crossed most of the major drainages and summited 22 named peaks along the way. Below is her trip report- enjoy!

In the summer of 2022, I hiked to New York Lake, a remote lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness, and hiked out following an off-trail alternate that I had drawn on CalTopo. I was alone all day, found some cairns, did some scrambling, got a little lost and a little rained on – and I was immediately hooked on off-trail travel. I had scrambled some ridge lines before, but this felt different and expansive.

Shortly after that, I started ruminating on an idea. What if I created a backpacking route that traveled through the Holy Cross Wilderness, connecting various trail systems within it? I wanted to grow more intimate and familiar with this whole area, to immerse myself in it in a new way. I also knew that planning and executing it would stretch my abilities and force me to grow as a Person Who Goes Outside, which was an exciting prospect.

After zooming around on the map for a few days, I settled on an objective: a traverse through the Holy Cross Wilderness visiting most of its major drainages, with the hope to summit its 22 named peaks (above 12k) along the way. The goal would be to walk a lot, have fun, and talk to the flowers – peaks and ridgelines would be bonuses as time, energy and weather allowed. 

Mapping & Planning

Before I ever drew a line on the map, I used CalTopo to familiarize myself with the zones I had never been to, and revisit the ones I knew well. During that time is when I got the idea to anchor my traverse around the named peaks in the area – I know that ranked or by elevation is a more standard way of selecting objectives, but this was my trip and I like summiting things with names! I used the online peak database List of John to make a big list of all the peaks I could find, and narrowed it down to 22 – there were 26 named peaks, but I omitted 4 because they were out of the way and almost all under 12k. A few were not on the Map Builder layer (or any others), so I created markers for them.

At that point, I made my map outline, which was just a crudely drawn line over the map, to figure out what my general path would be. I tweaked this a few times to land on the most logical and efficient way to move through the different zones.

The original general route as indicated by the purple line.

From there, it was time to get specific! First I filled in all the trail sections, and then I went to work on the off-trail connections. My favorite layer combo to work in was MapBuilder Topo as my primary and NAIP loaded up as a secondary base layer, to easily check my work and see what actually looked feasible. I also kept Forest Service as a stacked baselayer, because there were a few instances of older trails not marked on the MapBuilder but still shown on the Forest Service map.

My favorite base layer combination for planning the traverse: MapBuilder Topo, NAIP, and Forest Service.

Alongside my map, I created a spreadsheet that I used to track distance and elevation for each day, and to capture any questions I had about particular sections throughout the planning process. Eventually, I also created individual data sheets for each travel day with more detailed beta and estimated travel times.

The master spreadsheet I used to track stats and questions throughout the planning process.

In addition to all this faffing around on CalTopo, I also used online resources, blogs and guidebooks pretty extensively. Here in Colorado we are super lucky to have 14ers.com, a site dedicated to listing 14er routes which also actually includes routes and trip reports for a lot of other smaller peaks. I spent a bunch of time picking through old forum threads to get more info about specific sections I wasn’t sure about, especially for the western side of the map. I also found some blogs with really good trip reports for some of the less traveled areas, and borrowed a few guidebooks from the library to research certain routes. I wasn’t necessarily looking for hyper specific beta, but more so – does this ridge go at 3rd or 4th class? Is there likely to be a pass there or no? How horrifying is this bushwhack?

After working through many different iterations of each section, my planned traverse clocked in at 90 miles and 42,700 ft of gain, 63% of which would be off trail. I would execute it over a 13-day trip, including 2 rest days. I would hike alone for the first 4 days, take a rest day, be joined by my partner Dan for part of day 6 and then by my friend Brady on day 7, who would complete the rest of the route with me.

Some Favorite CalTopo Tools

Slope Angle Shading

A mapping tool that I used A LOT is the slope angle shading overlay, which I’d previously only thought of as a winter layer. Because a lot of my route included off-trail travel on very steep slopes and ridges, using the slope angle was often key in determining whether a particular chute or pass was feasible.

The dotted red line is my planned travel, and the green line is a potential escape route. The red shading indicates a 35-45 degree slope, which is steep but still within my comfort zone.

The slope angle shading overlay also turned out to be incredibly accurate and helpful in the field, and it came in really handy to navigate around cliff bands that I couldn’t see until I was right on top of them. It was pretty much always toggled on in my phone as it gave me a really good idea of the terrain I would encounter, and at this point I think about slope angles in colors more than numbers!

Digital Elevation Model Shading

I used the DEM tool to create a custom layer for flat spots (0 to 5 degrees) to help identify potential campsite spots. It was very helpful to identify a general zone where I would be likely to find a good camping spot every night. DEM Shading is just one of the many custom layers available in CalTopo. To learn more about custom layers, visit the Intro to Custom Layers section of the user guide.

Though I did not expect to camp in that exact spot, the Flat Layer made it look like I’d be able to camp somewhere in that area – and it was right!

Travel Plan

The travel time & plan features allow you to estimate time for one or multiple sections, using the Munter method. I love this tool, and really wanted to have a good sense of how long these days would be to make sure I was setting realistic goals. This is where I got REALLY nerdy. The hike mode was typically relatively accurate for my on-trail travel time (if a little slow), but it seemed to me like the bushwhack mode produced time estimates that felt really long, especially for class 2 sections where I would be hopping through boulder-fields. Since there is a custom mode option to input your own values, I set about finding out what my Munter number values on different types of terrain would be.

On my shakedown backpacking trips in the Gore Range, I sought out terrain similar to what I would experience on the traverse. I tracked all of these via GPS (mostly with my Garmin InReach mini – I love the CalTopo app tracking for day-trips, but it’s a little intensive on battery life for a backpacking trip), and imported the tracks into CalTopo. From there, I split the tracks into sections by type of travel (trail, talus, tundra, steep grass, ridges), pulled up travel plans for each, and reverse engineered what my Munter numbers were based on how long it actually took me. I now had numbers for a lot of types of travel, which I applied back to my route (also split up by travel). This isn’t an exact science, but in the end when I went back after my trip and looked through planned versus actual times, it turned out I had been really accurate. Neat!

By comparing my actual travel time to the standard Munter rates, I was able to determine my personal rate of travel through different types of terrain and enter it using the custom travel mode.

Other map planning tips and tricks that made my life easier on trail

After I created lines for my planned travel route, I also created alternate paths (side quests, easiest routes, lower altitude options) and bug-out routes, in case a storm rolled in and I needed to get off a ridge. I used the latter as my turnaround points, essentially assessing once I got to my last easy out whether to stay high or dip low.

Building these alternates into my map made it much easier to pivot as needed throughout the trip, and meant I was already familiar with the terrain around me, not just what was along my planned route. I also think of it as a worst-case safety feature – if I get lost/go missing and have deviated from my original plan, I am most likely somewhere along these pre-planned alternates, and it would be that much easier to find me.

Planning ahead for alternate and bug out routes as well as turnaround points and water sources meant I could move more efficiently once out in the backcountry.

I also dropped markers for water refill spots before heading into a long dry section. This entire route had a lot of water so I didn’t need to carry that much, but I wanted to have reminders on my map to fill up when I would be heading up high above water sources.

The Traverse

I set out on August 14th at 5am, and the sunrise greeted me with a spectacular inversion on my way up to Homestake Peak.

A spectacular way to start the trip.

Day 1, 2, and 4 went mostly as planned, and I really lucked out with gorgeous weather. Motivation started out low, and the first day involved some endless sideways boulder-hopping, but with each passing day I got more excited to be out there.

Day 2 featured a harrowing 2.5 mile bushwhack from Mormon Lake to the Savage Lakes trailhead, where I was shocked to not see any moose and lost some of my sanity in the endless maze of downed trees.

On day 3, I opted for an easier, mostly-trail alternative to my planned ridgeline, to manage my energy levels and stay low due to some potential weather. I made good use of the slope angle shading tool in real-time to work my way down a series of cliff bands above Sopris lake. 

My route through the cliff bands above Sopris Lake.

Walking on a trail and 4×4 road for the remainder of the day felt like an absolute treat, and I got to camp early enough for a swim in Hunky Dory lake!

At the end of day 4, I caught a ride into town at the very popular Half-Moon trailhead for a luxurious rest day at home. 

On day 6, the plan was to complete the Halo Ridge and follow East Cross Creek into the main Cross Creek drainage. It was a huge day, and the vert and possible afternoon storm intimidated me into just climbing the Notch proper rather than the whole loop, which turned out to be a lovely scramble. My partner Dan joined me for most of the day, and we split up at Half-Moon pass. I was able to follow a decent use trail all the way down East Cross Creek, and set up my tent before the rain came.

Dan in the notch on the aptly named Notch Mountain.

On day 7, I set out for the grueling 3800 foot off-trail climb to the summit of Mt Jackson, where I met my friend Brady who hiked with me for the rest of the trip. His fresh legs and the novelty of meeting a friend at the top of a 13er lifted my spirits, and our stoke was only interrupted by an exciting run-in with a wasps nest.

Brady and I on top of Mount Jackson at 13,670ft.

Day 8 was the climb of Middle Mountain – it’s a pretty casual jaunt coming up the south ridge, but we climbed its steep north ridge, which I had found absolutely zero information about. It turned out to be my absolute favorite climb of the trip with steep but relatively easy bushwhacking, wild raspberries, and a very cool split ridge unlike any feature I have seen on a peak before. The scrambling turned out to be low class 3 at most by staying on the west side of the ridge, but we bypassed a class 4-looking section of the north ridge proper that I will definitely come back for with a lighter pack!

Cool-looking split ridge on the way up to the summit of Middle Mountain.

True to its name, the mountain is centrally located in the Cross Creek drainage and offers incredible views of peaks all around it. We also saw a lot of small closed-up mine shafts and tailings piles throughout the climb and on the ridge itself, an impressive sight so deep in the backcountry when you consider the tools that prospective miners would have brought up here, let alone the effort required to dig a mine shaft at 12,000ft! Brady has a geology degree, and I received a thorough rundown of the various rock types and features on the mountain.

On day 9, we opted to cut our trip short and hike out toward a popular trailhead to hitch a ride. The forecast called for big all-day thunderstorms for the next few days, and the remaining section of the trip included a lot of class 3 and 4 travel, with no lower altitude alternates to move from one drainage to another. Though disappointed, we agreed that we were not comfortable with the risk of getting caught above treeline in a storm, and promised that we would be back next year to complete this final section!

Looking out over the Holy Cross Wilderness.

In the end, I covered 63 miles and 24,400 ft of vert, and summited 7 peaks. I spent 4 days alone, and 4 days with cherished mountain partners. I had the expected highs and lows of a big trip in the mountains, and surprised myself with my own skill and confidence. I got to experience absolute solitude and deep companionship in this beautiful wilderness, and came home with a long list of places to go back to, already scheming the next adventure.

Camille used the custom travel mode option on the Travel Plan tool to better estimate her personal expected travel time through different types of terrain. Travel Plan is one of the many powerful features available to pro and desktop subscribers. Visit our Individual Accounts page to learn more about the features and pricing of all of CalTopo’s individual subscriptions.