Route Report: The Great Dihedral, Hallett Peak RMNP 5.7 Grade III
I just finished a 4 day alpine training for a guest with the ultimate goal of climbing the Matterhorn. Throughout our time together we worked on multi-pitch skills, belay commands in a fast paced setting, snow travel, and moving quickly in 3rd through 5th class terrain up to 5.8.
For our final climb together I wanted to select a route that would encompass all of the elements that we had worked on in the previous days. With the heavy snow year the Colorado had the climbs on the North Face of Hallett Peak were a great choice.
As I prepared for the day I had to make a decision about footwear. I knew that climbing the rock in approach shoes would be ideal, but crossing the snow in them would be a gamble. I decided to carry my trusty Camp Alpina ice axe to chop steps with.
I met my guest in Estes Park at 0500 for a relatively reasonable alpine start. Hallett Peak offers great alpine routes with relatively short approaches of only 2-3 miles.
As we drove into the park we passed some of the local elk that had quite impressive racks.
We quickly made our way past all of the alpine lakes on the approach, Nymph, Dream, and finally Emerald. Then comes the talus field that stretched out for about a half of a mile. Crossing talus is a skill that is crucial for most alpine rock objectives. The keys that I have found work best is to try and pick a line through the talus avoiding the largest boulders if possible and always be wary of things that might be loose and spill you over causing a loss of balance.
As we made our way closer we could see that the snowfields along the base of the wall were bigger than what we could tell from the Dream lake vantage point. Time for the axe. The snow wasn’t so steep that crampons were necessary, but certainly steep enough that some good steps were in order. As we stepped onto the snow I started chopping. Chop Chop Step, Chop Chop Step. We made our way past the snow and to the base of the route.
I carried a single rack of cams up to a #4 camalot for the day with a set of stoppers as well. This gave us options for routes in this zone in case our primary objective was taken. Luckily we were able to stay with our primary objective of climbing the Great Dihedral.
The route follows the namesake dihedral that runs nearly the entire 600’ of the bottom half of the buttress. It looked awesome from the bottom!
As we started climbing the route opened up nicely. The opening pitch is essentially some ledgy climbing that deposits you on a good ledge at the base of the dihedral. An anchor was easily built with the rack and I quickly had my guest on belay. He quickly made it to the belay stance with a huge smile on.
The next pitch is the money. It starts with a nice right facing corner for about 50 feet. A small ledge is encountered and then you gain a larger corner section with a wide crack, the face on the left provides a perfect hand crack though that you can follow for the next 100 feet. The rock quality is really good and climbing this pitch could bring a tear to a glass eye. There are perfect hands, the rock was sticky and felt great with the approach shoes, and because its a crack feature there was gear nearly anywhere you wanted it.
I got to the next ledge and belayed my guest up. It was obvious as he reached the belay that his dreams of climbing great alpine routes were coming true for him. This route and this experience is the reason he wanted to climb in the mountains. It was pretty special for me to be able to help him reach those goals. That really is the reason why I love my work.
One more pitch and we had reached the halfway point up the First Buttress. We were running a little behind on our time plan to avoid thunderstorms.
One more pitch and we had reached the halfway point up the First Buttress. We were running a little behind on our time plan to avoid thunderstorms. With the energy waning from the toll of working on skills and climbing the previous 3 days we decided to start descending.
We made our way to the left and found a rap anchor that another party had left before. After inspecting the tat to ensure it was still good enough we started our descent. One lower and rappel and then moving down through some 3rd and 4th class steps. In another 30 minutes we were back to the base.
All we had left was the hike back out. The sun had done its job and the snow had softened. On our return crossing we were able to plunge step and even got a short glissade in to really add a fun end to a great alpine rock climb.
