Conditions on liberty bell?

[suckbm]

I am hoping to climb beckey route on liberty bell and maybe other routes around there like one of the early winter spires. Will the snow be gone by June 15ish to do this. Also what do you need for a rack for beckey route on liberty bell. Any info is well appreciated. Thanks

[Billygoat]

The rock is all snow free as of last Saturday, but it could be snowing there right now. As far as a rack, read either the Nelson or Beckey guides as I have not climbed it.

[pindude]

Friends from Spokane-CDA area climbed Beckey route two weekends ago (Memorial weekend), reporting no problems on the rock. As far as rack goes, a modest rack (~20 pieces) of nuts and cams/hexes should do ya.

[michaeljosephnozel]

Not that this answers your question regarding the rack for Beckey Route on Liberty Bell, but it brought back an interesting memory from the route years ago. My partner and I were passed at P2 by a fellow who seemed to be guiding another fellow brand new to climbing. (But that is not really the interesting memory). The "guide" had a rack consisting of three medium nuts, which I presume were deployed as follows: (1) nut in the pitch; (2) in the belay. I also presume that he began each successive pitch with those three nuts, repeating a similar deployment pattern, so that his second was always belayed while climbing. The "guide" was literally sprinting up the route, and they were soon out of sight, even though his second was cautious and fairly slow. (This also reveals something of the speed at which my partner and I were climbing, but we were duly impressed on our maiden voyage into the North Cascades. "Holy shit, these guys move fast up here! Jesus Christ, we've got a big rack!").

 

We were looking over our shoulders during the rest of the climb, preparing to be the "slower party: yield right."