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Northwest
Face, Liberty Bell, 5.9, 4 pitches
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back
to wa pass |
This climb is hidden from view
on most approaches and seems to have much less traffic than
it deserves. The topo in Becky's book describe two start variations,
and two finish variations, which in effect total up to two
completely different climbs. We did the left start to the
left finish and found good solid climbing, well worth the
day. The crux is the third pitch, where some rounded lieback
on a stretch of less than perfect rock, proved troublesome.
The final dihedral is long and sustained, but lower angle
than suspected. Instead of doing strenuous jams up a soaring
corner, it was more like balancy moves on slabby rock with
a fingertip crack for gear. Descent via the rappels
described here |
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As we zoomed
up the lower, relatively easy pitches the clouds thickened
until they totally obscured Silver Star and the Wine Spires.
The air was cold and heavy with moisture. Hardly felt like
July.
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Joe Sprauer (left)
and myself contemplating the apparently deteriorating weather
before the third pitch. At this point the angle of the rock
increases dramatically and so does the difficulty. Convenient
rap anchors become scarce. To go up or down?
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In these two images
Joe is delicately working his way up the crisp flakes of the crux
pitch as it started to snow lightly. While I stood shivering on
the belay, secretly wishing I was on lead so at least to get warm,
a steady downpour settled in. But not only of frozen rain, but also
of crumbling granite, aka kitty litter, loosened by Joes passage
up the eroded rock. In the end it was actually a fine pitch, not
too hard, and with interesting festures up higher.
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Joe
popping out of the long, fine dihedral near the top of Liberty
Bells NW Face. This pitch turned out different than anticipated.
I had pictured it steep with lots of strenuous jamming, neither
of which was true. Instead the hard sections were rather low
angle, fingertip thin and had smears for footholds. The pro
was good and overall it was not a very taxing lead. The rock
was solid and fine grained, polished by millennia of water run
off, and for that reason this climb should be avoided early
in the season and right after heavy rain.
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Near the top of
the route. At this point, although still quite cold, there was
little or no threat of precip.
The prominent hump in the background is Cutthroat Peak, with
the fine looking South Buttress facing us slightly left of center. |
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