CO Backpacking: "I could die now...or...now!"

[Chris] This is the story of a trip in August 2008 to the Mount of the Holy Cross Wilderness in CO with Emily, myself, and our friend, James. It’s an exciting one if you haven’t heard it before. I can't believe it was 3.5 years ago!

Most of the trips Emily and I take have the primary goal of seclusion; we often judge the success of the trip, at least in part, by how few people we see. This trip was different though. Our friend James said he needed more danger and adventure in his life and he said he wanted to accomplish something. Well I suppose I can’t take all the credit, but this trip delivered in the danger and adventure categories.

Mount of the Holy Cross

Emily and I had already done a trip in Pictured Rocks earlier that summer so we thought this would be a good opportunity to do something different. We left early in the morning, got to Denver by dinner time, had dinner with our friend Alex, and then drove the rest of the way to the trailhead. We slept by the car that night and got going in the morning. The plan for the first day was to hike over half-moon pass, down to the stream, and up to one of the lakes underneath the cirque (Lake Patricia). The next day we would try reach the summit of Mt of the Holy Cross (a 14er), and the third day we would hike out. I guess our trip didn’t vary too much from our plan, but the way it happened wasn’t exactly as expected.

The first day ended up being a long one. I didn’t have a map, just a few notes from a guide book. After making it down to the creek we climbed toward the lake but couldn’t figure out how to get to it. We ended up a ways above the lake and although it looked pretty, we didn’t have the energy or desire to try to find our way down to it so we ended up hiking back to the creek.

The next morning we woke up to try for the summit. We started nice and early because, especially in August, storms can roll in and so people plan to be off the mountain top by late morning. I love waking up in the mountains. There are few things more enjoyable to me than getting a fresh breath of mountain air in the morning- the smell of the damp conifers, the sound of the creek, the crisp chill in the air. And this morning was no different. We woke up, sat on damp, moss covered rocks, and ate breakfast to the sounds of the babbles in the creek.

The sky was overcast as we started hiking and the temperature was pleasantly cool. Each year a few people get lost coming off Holy Cross because they follow the wrong path down, so I told James and Emily that if someone gets separated and loses the trail they should turn right, find the creek, and follow that back to camp. We hiked up some broad switchbacks and quickly got above the tree-line. Holy Cross is a big, open, granite peak. There are multiple paths to the top and the hike involves walking over large boulders. At a certain point, Emily told James and I to keep going and she would travel at her own speed. If she didn’t make it to the top we would catch her on our way down.

As we continued to hike, I noticed low clouds in the distance. The clouds were slowly heading our direction but it was still pretty early so we picked up the pace. After a while longer, I looked back and saw clouds that were a lot closer. These clouds must have been out of sight in the valley as they came toward us. When they hit our mountain they rose up like a wall behind us, and they moved fast. It was actually an awe-inspiring sight. Within a matter of minutes the clouds climbed over us and it started to rain.

Last pic of the peak before
the rain started

We walked for a few more minutes when I started to hear a slight hissing sound. I asked James if he heard it and he thought it was our water bottles releasing some pressure from the change in altitude. Made sense to me. But then I heard a similar sound again, but it had more of a crackle this time. And this one made my heart beat a little faster. I looked back for Emily and couldn’t see her. The boulders are large, the air was foggy, and it was raining a little harder now. The big granite rocks get pretty slippery when wet so we weren’t moving quite as fast as I would have liked. When I heard the crackling sound, my immediate reaction was to squat down. James was about 30 seconds behind me and I waited for him to catch up. I was feeling nervous and I suggested we head back. We stood for a minute thinking. We stood on top of the ridge, with the clouds around us, the top of a cornice to our left, the field of wet granite boulders to our right, and the summit, which we could no longer see, 500 feet above us.

As we stood there thinking, my thoughts were validated. The hair on my arms started to tingle, my beard started to tingle, the crackling sound got louder, and then… a deafening crack! We’ve all seen lighting before, a beautiful wire of light that streaks from the sky. This was different. This was being engulfed by light; there was no delay between the flash of light and the thunder. Well, our option was pretty clear. I said “alight, let’s go” and started down to find Emily. I never turned around to see that James debated a while longer. (I think he debated his choice until the second strike.) As I ran over the water-greased boulders the lightning continued, sometimes with an engulfing flash and sometimes to one side or the other as the lighting formed at eye level and struck lower on the mountain. Before the strikes, the ground would charge and make that crackling, hissing sound I first heard. But the sound was louder now and the hair on my arms would have been standing if it wasn’t so wet. The most amazing, creepiest sound was the humming sound that my hand made if I waved it quickly through the air. With each swing of my arm there was an electrical, humming, “Waaaaw” sound similar to a light saber battle in Star Wars. And that is creepy.

I hurried down the mountain and luckily picked a path that took me right past Emily. She called and I saw her crouching beneath the overhang of a big boulder (not a safe place). Her eyes were as big as saucers- she was pretty cute, actually. Together, we continued toward the tree line, keeping our distance from each other (because you hope only one gets hit by lightning at a time). We later recounted the strange realization that, as we said, "I could die now... or... now!" By the time we made it to the tree line the rain was letting up. When we got to camp we took off our wet clothes, laid down in the tent, and waited for James.

About an hour later James showed up. James is a pastor at the church we were going to, so while we were waiting we commented that it wouldn’t be fun to have to tell church we killed the pastor. When James got back to camp and didn’t see us he asked in a somewhat nervous voice, “guys?” Fortunately, we all lived, and of course we talked about it for the rest of the night.

The hike out was uneventful, although we were somewhat disappointed that we didn’t get to the top. On the way back home we stayed in the worst, nastiest motel in North Platte, NE. I think in the months that followed I heard James use this story in sermons more than twice. He asked for danger and adventure… I think that is probably a risky thing to ask.

Obviously, this was a memorable, fun trip and it was great to have James with us. I still want to get back and go to the top though.

If you want to see more pictures, click here.