The Alaska class followed a heavy-cruiser gun path

Was the Alaska class a halfway house between heavy cruisers and battlecruisers?

No; the class is treated as a very heavy cruiser built around the 12-inch-gun route to greater firepower, although the answer is cut short.

The halfway-house label is rejected in favor of treating the Alaska class as heavy cruisers for their time. Designers seeking an exceptionally heavy cruiser could pursue autoloading, high-volume fire from 8- or 9.2-inch guns or adopt 12-inch guns. Alaska represents the larger-calibre route in that framework, so gun size alone does not make the class a battlecruiser. The connection breaks up before the explanation finishes, making this a partial classification argument rather than a complete assessment of the design.