kurthicks Posted December 1, 2004 Posted December 1, 2004 Climb: Liberty Bell-Beckey Route Date of Climb: 11/19/2004 Trip Report: A little late, but whatever... After a failing to leave the parking lot on our attempt on the couloir on Eldo due to fresh snow, I headed up to WA Pass with Willow (no avatar) on Friday Nov. 19 to do something we could handle with the gear we had. Due to a lack of a guidebook, we though the Beckey route or the SW Rib of SEWS was in order. We started from the parking lot with no real objective at 7AM and it took almost 3 hours to get to the start of the Beckey route due to deep freshies. The approach gully was filling in nicely and is probably a good ski by now. not enough snow to ski in most of the other places up there (the Birthday tour, i think), but enough to cover the approach slabs (and the ice that is on them). We racked up and I lead the first 2 pitches up to the slabby 3rd pitch. There is a stuck #7 stopper on the first pitch if anyone wants to go get it. The chimney was the crux of the whole route. Patches of ice allowed for one decent tool placement in the chimney, with the rest being either dry-tooling or desperate hand jams with gloves on. The rest of the route was dry, except some snow of the first half of the third pitch. Willow dispensed the slab in fine form, considering that we were climbing in mountain boots and gloves. The one move 5.7 slab was surprisingly easy in boots and we were on top in about 4 hours. No speed record, but a good outing considering the conditions, climbing with 'pons for the first couple pitches and a lack of gear. There was ice forming on the road cuts on the East side of the pass, but nothing else that we saw. Probably some good skiing and ice up there by now. Pics to come in a day or two. Kurt Gear Notes: small rock rack (5 nuts, 4 cams to 1") 1 half rope snowshoes 2 tools, pons Approach Notes: trail was packed then. 4" of snow in the parking lot. Quote
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