August 10, 2019
Hallet Peak - Rocky Mountain National Park
These two pictures tell the story of the day.
It's Friday night and once again Laura and I are off to RMNP. The weather looks iffy, but if you don't show up, you'll never get anything done! Earlier in the week we decided that Hallet would be a relatively short climb and we thought we could get off the mountain by noon, thus avoiding the standard Colorado afternoon thunderstorms. Sleeping in the Jeep near the trailhead, we set off into the darkness at 5 am and began the short approach toward the beautiful basin and Lake Solitude. Boulder hopping around the lake, we reached what we thought was the base of Culp-Bosier route at 6:30 am. A group behind us mentioned that they started in a different spot for the same route but since Laura was already tied in, we chose to proceed. As they began to climb, so did we, and we ended on a ledge just 50' across from them. Considering that we'd be climbing over each other all day, Laura decided that we should rappel and get to the correct start of the route.
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| Laura leads pitch 1 |
It's now 7:15 am and once again, we are at the base of the climb, but this time we are at the correct start! Laura followed the climbers in front of us and linked the first two pitches, quickly catching up to them at our first belay. As I set off on the second pitch, I realized that I knew one of the climbers through a mutual friend. I introduced myself at the belay and his concern of us following him faded when he realized who I was and that I was solid in the alpine. The weather in the distance was not looking promising and Sam and Mo had considered bailing. We all looked at the weather radar together and saw nothing indicated until 3 pm, then all decided to continue, each feeling a bit more comfortable pushing on knowing we had a second long rope if we needed to bail. Continuing on, we climbed just two more pitches before the skies suddenly opened up. Laura was on the 5.6 pitch and climbed in in the pouring rain before rappelling alongside Sam.
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| Lets bail |
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| Stuck ropes |
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| Simu-rappelling in the pouring rain |
The four of us stood at the belay atop pitch 4 soaking from the rain and made a plan to join forces and rappel down the mountain as a group. We made a game plan and while Sam flaked ropes, I slung a large flake to rappel off of. The first rappel was around a corner and made pulling the wet rope almost impossible. I climbed up and around the corner, pulled the ropes and then down lead the easy section of rock back to the belay with the rest of the group. With frozen hands and soaked to the bone, each group simu-rappeled two more times in the cold rain. We eventually made it to the ground after two hours. Packed up and heading back, the hike back to the parking lot was cold although we slowly dried out. We made it back to the car safely and all met to have a beer in Estes to celebrate our type 1.5 fun day and what Sam referred to as "The Colorado Handshake" aka getting stormed on in the alpine!
It's Friday night and once again Laura and I are off to RMNP. The weather looks iffy, but if you don't show up, you'll never get anything done! Earlier in the week we decided that Hallet would be a relatively short climb and we thought we could get off the mountain by noon, thus avoiding the standard Colorado afternoon thunderstorms. Sleeping in the Jeep near the trailhead, we set off into the darkness at 5 am and began the short approach toward the beautiful basin and Lake Solitude. Boulder hopping around the lake, we reached what we thought was the base of Culp-Bosier route at 6:30 am. A group behind us mentioned that they started in a different spot for the same route but since Laura was already tied in, we chose to proceed. As they began to climb, so did we, and we ended on a ledge just 50' across from them. Considering that we'd be climbing over each other all day, Laura decided that we should rappel and get to the correct start of the route.
