Hall Peak

June 1, 2026

1672m

Mountain Loop Highway, WA

Hall Peak boasts over 300 m prominence above the saddle with Big Four Mtn. and is just about as rugged and “inaccessible” as the taller neighbour, and sees perhaps no more than a few ascents in several years. Things have changed in the past year or so, as the nowadays “standard route” had seen some developments that it’s no longer an insane thrash in the vertical jungle. The route developer does not want the masses to know much about the “news” so I wouldn’t be passing on much of the “beta” for legality reasons, but I bet the words would be out with or without my trip report, as those who know it, know it. Elise and I were originally thinking about Merchant Peak but I changed the objective to Hall Peak as it’s shorter and closer to home. This would be on the 2nd day of an intense 3-day peak-bagging itinerary and I didn’t want to push too hard. I also needed to do at least 2 hours of work in White Rock afterwards and that’s why we decided to go south, as this direction involved the least amount of traffic problems.

To make sure I could get back in time for work we decided to leave at 4 AM and that would put us at the Big Four Ice Caves trail-head 3 hours later. I did have to stop for gas and breakfast and that ate some time. In terms of the gears we opted to wear trail runners for as much as possible but carried mountaineering boots, ice axe and crampons even though I wasn’t anticipating to use them. We did eventually put the boots on as the snow was quite steep at places, but I also think the trail runners with aluminum crampons could make do. It was nice to have dry feet anyway. This was an insanely dry year for Washington so the snow gears are probably definitely needed on a more typical year.