[TR] Liberty Bell - Beckey Route (SW Face) 6/13/2017

[SidR]

Trip: Liberty Bell - Beckey Route (SW Face)

 

Date: 6/13/2017

 

Trip Report:

Ed and I got a 7:30am start and tried to follow the trail with GPS. Terrible idea - it turned a ~40 minute hike up to the base of the gully into a 2 hour ordeal. We were ahead of one other team on the route. The gully was packed with hard snow and was fine going up. The climb was cold and windy - Ed led all 4 pitches. From the summit, descend/downclimb a little to find a tree with rap rings, go down and traverse over to find chains - three raps total to get back down. We were a little late getting back down and the snow in the gully had gotten quite soft. Pretty treacherous getting down the gully - there was lots of slipping and arresting going on. We didn't follow the trail going back down - it was much more direct. Got back down at 7:30pm.

 

Gear Notes:

Set of cams up to #3. We doubled up on a #0.75 and a #1.

 

Approach Notes:

Don't follow the trail in snowy/winter conditions. Just take the straight line up to the slabs where you cut left to the Beckey gully. Lots of spruce traps to negotiate if you try to follow the trail like we did.