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RMNP: Hallett Peak - "Better than Love" + Recon


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After 5 years in Seattle I moved to Salt Lake City in 2002. Although afternoon cragging in LCC and a 25 minute commute from our doorstep to the lift line at Alta were pretty nice, I really missed the North Cascades. Lone peak was pretty nice, but that wasa about it for good alpine climbing. After moving to Fort Collins last year I finally escaped the new house projects to get in some climbing in RMNP and see how the Rockies compare to the Cascades.

 

We headed up Tyndall Gorge for Hallet Peak, a huge monolithic face with many 7-8 pitch climbs. Our route was to the right of the central gully up through the dark overhang near the top.

 

Hallett Peak:

310Hallett_Peak.jpg

 

Pitch 1 was up some easy blocks stuff with the ever present yellow lichens: 310Hallett_Peak1.jpg

 

Jim turning the roof on the 5.8 second pitch. It was a continuous corner crack with sweet stemming and good gear:

310Hallett_Peak_2.jpg

 

I can't remember whether this is pitch 3 or 5. There was a lot of wide open mid-5th class face climbing with solid holds and spaced out protection. It felt great to run it out with pretty large exposure.

310Hallett_Peak_3.jpg

 

Jime heading up more of the same terrain. 310Hallett_Peak_4.jpg

 

Note the blue sky overhead on the last shot. We were enjying ourselves and not making too much effort to hurry. This turned out to be a mistake as within the next 45 minutes RMNP lived up to its reputation for rapid weather changes. I found myself panting and fighting massive rope drag as I ran 2 pitches togetther to get through the last 5.8 roof section before the sprinkles started. Jim followed and finished the last short pitch before we both bolted for the repel route as thunder roared overhead. Pretty scary. We did have time for 1 photo before repelling.

310Hallett_Peak_5.jpg

 

A few days later my wife and I did some more hiking and spotted a few more future objectives.

 

The Shark's Tooth - from Northeast: 310Shark_s_Tooth.jpg

 

There are sure a lot of spires around the park. These are Zowie (left) and Wham (right) on the way to Andrews "Glacier". 310Wham.jpg

 

This is what they call a

"glacier" in Colorado (note guy to the left of the photo who just took a run through the sun-bowls): 310Glacier.jpg

 

Nice scenery on the way to check out the Cathedral Spires. Glass Lake: 310GlassLake.jpg

 

The Cathedral Spires have some must do spires including the Petit Grepon (center), the Saber (right) and the Shark's Tooth (left). 310PGrepon.jpg

Edited by jon
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