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Holy Cross Mountain
Kananaskis, Alberta
September 25, 2004
Holy Cross is an enjoyable scramble and one that I recommend. You can park at Sentinel parking lot and take Pack Trail Coulee, but you gain and lose 100 m going over Grass Pass. The shortest route is up Gunnery Creek trail: park on the highway shoulder about a kilometre west of Sentinel parking lot. (We went up Gunnery Creek but for a change of scenery, we returned via Pack Trail Coulee. The profile indicates our return trip.)
At 705878 you'll reach a high point on the trail and start dropping down. Follow this for a few minutes before leaving the trail and heading NW. After about 500 m of easy bushwhacking, you should encounter a good trail, freshly blazed. I assume this trail reaches Gunnery Creek trail, but it would be longer and would lose elevation.
Head west on the blazed trail until you come to a grassy knoll. I lost the trail here but was unconcerned. A few dozen metres away is a good animal trail. Head west up a lightly wooded slope and you should soon come across it. The trail breaks out of the trees onto a talus slope where there's a good view of Holy Cross Mountain. We started up the gully and angled towards the NE ridge, but after summiting, we descended the NE ridge. In hindsight, the reverse would be better – up the ridge and down the gully – offering good scrambling up and loose rock down.
MOVIE
As we started off, the sunrise turns the rocks red
We passed a stand of aspen turning yellow
On the blazed trail, Holy Cross comes into view. The trail appears to end
on the grassy knoll ahead.
From this animal trail, we'll drop into the valley below
After reaching the valley we started climbing
We reached the base of the gully
Studying the gully
We decided to start up the right side
The gully is probably best done on the return leg
Dinah makes her way around a small cliff band
We left the gully and started up the ridge
On the summit
Coming down from the summit
We tried continuing along the ridge towards Mount Head but were
stopped by a knife-edge ridge
Coming down the NE ridge
The ridge offers interesting scrambling
Partway down the ridge
Looking up from the NE ridge
Back at pass
Back on the trail
82 J/7 Mount Head (gully ascent not shown)
