Climb: liberty bell-liberty crack

Date of Climb: 7/28/2004

Trip Report:
Started climbing as sun hit rock. First few pitches went somewhat slowly, as I haven't done much aid besides redneck aiding before. I led the Lithuanian Lip, which was a blast. After that, we cruised along, swinging leads. Possible to link several pitches, although rope drag is a drag in places. Favorite pitches were in top half of the route. Least favorite pitch was probably the rotten block pitch, which has some fun climbing but plentiful crappy rock that if dislodged would probably nuke your partner. Both of us were suffering from lack of water as we started a quart low and brought only a quart each for the day. Travel light, slow and dessicated is our motto. Thanks to the party who climbed the beckey route whom we met up with on the descent who shared a few swigs of their aqua and the yodelers who gave a couple of stinky delirious bums a ride back to the car. Returned well worked to Twisp in time to catch some jazz on the deck by the river. Today is a hammock day.

Gear Notes:
we took too much given the large amount of fixed gear. didn't need cam hooks or anything. no packs, single 60. small nuts and cams are very helpful.

Approach Notes:
little bit on snow at base is hard and icy, but kicking steps is fine, no ax necessary.

Sweet route huh?

I would argue that cam hooks are highly recommended if you want to make cleaning the lip a cinch for the second on pitch 2.

Yeah, much fun! Maybe we could have used hooks, but after clipping the bolt, I only placed one piece of gear under the lip which allowed me to reach the piton right at the lip of the lip.

PS. my partner dropped some mystery booty which landed right at the base of the climb for those who feel like a short hike.

Nice to have that Layton Kor reach sometimes, huh Patrick?

Yeah man, I always get stuck leading that stupid rotten block pitch too. I've found if you climb behind it its not too bad to free using some "redneck aid," even though its super akward and involves some squeeze chimney thrutching.

mystery booty = poop tube

Jeff H. and I climbed LC on 7/24/04.

Free climbing (11a) or french-freeing (5.9, A0) is definitely the way to do the first pitch; much faster than aiding. I led the second pitch (aid) over the Lithuanian Lip which was pretty easy (A1+ maybe?) supposedly harder to follow than lead. After the first two pitches, which I led, Jeff H. and I swung leads. Jeff led the third pitch which is the aid crux of the route, but still very easy, just a little freaky because the gear doesn't LOOK solid. There were two other spots where we did a few moves of aid (like at the "rotten block"), but it went pretty quickly. I think we went base to summit in about 11hrs. We had to wait a total of about 30minutes for a group in front of us. {chestbeat}They fixed the first three pitches the day before and we still caught them. {/chestbeat}

Gear:
Single 60m rope, single run of stoppers, single rack of cams to 3", doubles of 0.75, 1.0, and 2.0 camalots, a few offset aliens were nice. One BD Skyhook for a single hook move on p3. No other hooks needed. Supposedly camhooks can speed things up, but we didn't use them. Try not to carry very much weight. Jugging with the pack was the toughest part of the climb, but we carried too much water (6 Liters! Thanks Sizzy! ). We also carried a 60m 7mm tagline which we didn't use.

We used THIS TOPO which is very good. Thanks Clint.

It's not that hard of a route, but it is pretty long and tiring. DEB on SEWS is a better climb than LC.

Some pictures:
East face of Lib Bell. Lib crack splits the white streak and goes over the roof "lithuanian lip".



Looking down the first pitch of Lib Crack:


Jeff H. leading p3 of Lib Crack:

Did you guys go back to the base and clean up all the gear that you dropped?

Yup. No booty nutz for you!

Which guy were you?

tom

nice TR's. i agree re: first pitch; when special and i climbed LC, {double-fisted chestbeat} that first pitch was my proudest lead all year. love that route, still goes down as one o' the most fun in my book. Mr. Fox: I must disrespectfully, er, respectfully disagree that DEBSEWS > LC. the latter edges the former. they both rock. anyway, nice work.

While leading the last sustained corner pitch my partner-- apparently addled by various factors including, but not limited to: a 2.5 hr sweat lodge sesh; 3 hrs. sleep; a bad case of gastrointestinal distress; and the hallucinogenic stages of dehydration--was having solo conversations such as "Get it together!" "Arggggghhhh!" "This is just a layback!" "Aaaaaarrrrrrghggghhhhh!!" "Get it together!!!"

"Send it doooooooood!" I yelled up, cackling hysterically, eyeing the shadows looping overhead.

Het got it together and sent it with some motivation from the circling wombats.

"As your attorney I recommend you put me on belay."


"WE CAN'T STOP HERE! THIS IS WOMBAT COUNTRY!!!"

hey pax how was the wine? yum. and the rope is in the hands of the very stoked owner.

There is really nothing better than a nice dry red wine when you are really dehydrated and sitting in the blazing sun.

too bad you dumped all the water out that i supposedly twisted your arm to carry up with you...

I didn't want to dump that water out, but the wombats were on fire.

As The Good Doctor says, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro...

Liberty Crack is turning into the cc.com flava of da month!

Ania and I climbed it in a day yesterday. Only piece of beta I can think of is that there's a creaky flake between the 2nd and 3rd bolt from the top of pitch 2. You can't reach the next bolt by high-stepping, so you need to bust a free move or use a hook. When I slowly weighted a hook behind that flake, it creaked. If you were to fully weight the hook or yard on the flake during a free move, it would probably blow.

Regarding Clint's topo, his ratings are different from Beckey's and Nelson's ratings... maybe Clint is rating the pitches as if they were in Yosemite? Some of the pitches felt stout for the grade on Clint's topo. (Or maybe my internal ratings are skewed, having just come back from three days in Squamish?)

I don't remember having to bust any free moves on p2. Maybe you ain't steppin' high enough in the stirrups?

Wherz yer pictures?

There's a hole drilled for a skyhook on 2nd pitch. I think you're right above a bomber red camalot though.

SpecialEd,
Are you thinking of the THIRD pitch? I know Jeff did a hook move in a drilled hole on p3; I didn't see any drilled holes (easy to miss) or do any hook moves on p2.

Looking up the third pitch:

From what I remember about the 2nd pitch, there was a small ledge up and left of a bolt, and from standing on that ledge, I was able to reach the next bolt. The bolt was significantly further apart from the previous bolt than any other adjacent bolts in the bolt ladder.

The hook move is on the 3rd pitch, and the hole certainly is enhanced...

if you free solo it its all the first pitch