alissadoherty

We all had Cascade volcano experience, are proficient rock/ice climbers and two of us endurance train in low elevation mountains on rough terrain so we felt our skills were appropriate for Liberty Ridge. In reality, we should have tried a less committing route as a test piece. We did bring documentation on the route, GPS waypoints, and kept our packs under 35 lbs max weight. Our at-home preparation was extensive but it does not replace experience in the field. We definitely hoped this report would be valuable to other climbers especially because we didn't encounter many trip reports in late season conditions in our research. For prospective climbers in warm temps or late season, I recommend being certain that snow gullies persist on the ridge or go home!

Thanks for the feedback guys! We had a gut feeling when the Carbon was so broken up that it might be time to call it a wrap but without experience to guide us, we pushed it. Overall, the worst day was indeed the 20 hours of climbing to reach Thumb Rock. This had nothing to do with medical issues/conditioning though--we were just way in over our heads with no snow and no pro. Scared stiff by the choss, we pitched out traverses the entire length of the ridge but belaying was probably pretty useless in those conditions and we should have gone without for efficiency (or just turned around early...hindsight is 20/20!). We were indeed pucky, and we were lucky!