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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
KLM Track


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)

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