Sunny skies and warm temperatures had finally arrived in Rocky Mountain National Park. Nate and I were getting the itch to do an alpine climb. Neither one of us had climbed Englishman's Route on Hallett, so this seemed like a great choice for the day. And indeed it was. With the benefit of the early season snow and it being midweek, we were the only party on all of Hallett.

We thought that the Englishman's Route was a lot of fun. For its lower half, the route climbs the first three pitches of the Love Route, up to a white band of rock; for its upper half, the route climbs a huge, arcing dihedral that splits the upper second buttress of Hallett.

The following page gives an overlay and pitch-by-pitch photos from our enjoyable day out.

Time Stats

Bear Lake Trailhead to base of route (some snow): 1 hour 20 minutes
Climb route: 3 hours 30 minutes
Top of route to trailhead (some snow): 2 hours
Total car-to-car (includes breaks): 7 hours 30 minutes

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd

From Bear Lake Trailhead, follow the trail to Emerald Lake. Go left around the lake, scrambling through talus and then on a climbers' trail under the base of the wall. Hike up snow or talus beneath the North Face to the triangular buttress at the lower left side of the Second Buttress. The right side of the triangle forms a huge right-facing dihedral; begin 80 feet right of a huge right-facing dihedral.

Pitch 1

5.6, 160'

Climb the pink wall and follow a grassy, right-facing dihedral for 130 feet. Step left and go another 30 feet to a good stance.

Pitch 1 of the Love Route.

Pitches 2&3

4th, 300'

Work up and left and follow the big dihedral to a belay alcove at its top. This can be done in a couple of long pitches. In the early season, the dihedral holds some snow.

Pitches 2&3 of the Love Route.

Pitch 4

5.7

Climb the big right-arcing corner/chimney and belay on a small ledge.

Pitch 5

5.6

Continue up the dihedral/chimney and belay at some blocks.

Pitch 6

5.8

Climb straight up a crack to a crack to a roof, then traverse left to a crack that leads to the top of the wall. Variations of this pitch are possible (see guidebook). This is a long pitch (a 70 just makes it from the belay at the top of Pitch 5 to the top).

Top

The route tops out on the ridge well below the actual summit of Hallett. It would be easy to scramble to the summit from here, but we felt no great need to do so so we headed down.

Descent

2 Rappels + Scramble

From the top of the route, hike downwards along the ridge, following cairns. At the end of the last big buttress before a big descent to the next one, look for the chains that mark the first rappel. Make two raps (single 60). When snow-free, the standard descent from here is to scramble down a gully eastward, and then jog back westward and scramble down a gully to the base of the Second Buttress. You end up a few hundred feet below the start of the route (5 minutes back to base). When snowy, as it was for us, a good descent is the snowfield below the East Col. We found that an ice axe and spikes were handy.