[TR] Rainier- Liberty Ridge 7/3/2005

[Chad_A]

Climb: Rainier-Liberty Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 7/3/2005

 

Trip Report:

The weather didn't look spectacular, forecast-wise, but Oleg and I decided to give Liberty Ridge a shot this past weekend. We left Portland at 11 a.m., and arrived at White River sometime around 2:15, or so. The gentleman behind the counter at the White River ranger station felt us out for our experience level, and gave us what he knew to be the most up-to-date info on route conditions. He'd guessed that the trickiest part of the outing would be finding out way across the Carbon to the toe of the Ridge without getting stymied, and also to watch for odd, ever-changing snow conditions on-route. He also advised us to get as far as we could that evening to see if we could get a look down onto the glacier from Curtis Ridge before sundown.

 

We left the truck at a little after 3, and hiked up to St. Elmo's Pass, where we had good views of the Winthrop, and of Glacier Basin.

 

 

Fairly-recent boot tracks across the Winthrop helped pick our route across the glacier, but as we were able to look back after crossing it, it would have been easier to stay lower on the glacier- much less broken up. After gaining Curtis Ridge, we traversed for a half-hour, and found a beautiful bivy site, complete with rock walls. Since I'd worked the night shift before, and was operating on two hours of sleep,I didn't have the want to go and check out the Carbon. It was also about 9 p.m., so Oleg and I sat, ate, and took pics.

 

 

 

We hit the bivy sacks at about 10-10:30, and napped until 2 a.m. Left camp somewhere around 3, and after bumbling around in the dark for a bit, and passing a couple of tents from another team, found the scree slope that led down to the Carbon. Roping up at 4:45 to start the glacier travel, we had concerns about rockfall on the lower Ridge, since the sun was coming up so early. Still, it was pretty chilly, and everything was hard and frozen, so we pushed on. The Carbon difficulties proved to be nil, as we easily made our way to the toe of the Ridge without issue (I think that you can see the continous ramp that we took in one of the next pics. Oleg has better pictures than I of this segment- I have copies, but I'll let him post his own pics.)

 

Oleg led up and across old avalanche rubble to gain the base of the west side of the Ridge. We were still roped up, when he crossed a bridge over the moat, only to have the snow change from good step kicking consistency, to rotten, dirty ice. Just then, we both ducked as a series of golfball to grapefruit sized rocks whirled by. He was high enough and out of the way; I hit the deck, and they somehow missed me. We both felt fortunate, and grunted up quickly toward the crest to try to get out of the danger. Above, the snow turned a bit more friendly, and we cruised a bit higher on the Ridge before unroping. Here's a good shot of Oleg on the lower Ridge.

 

There were bands of rock that we had to navigate; sometimes climbing 5-6 foot steps of fourth-class ice-plastered rock. At about 9:30, we arrived at Thumb Rock, and not a moment too soon; the snow was beginning to soften. This helped with digging a small bivy spot, though, as we were both reasonably tired thus far, both mentally and physically. Oleg at the bivy spot.

 

We napped with our helmets on in the sun, as I remembered Alpinfox's unexpected "visitor" plunging through the side of his tent while bivying there. We had a couple rain down on us, as well, but nothing too large. The other team showed up later in the day, and we chatted for a while. Oleg and I napped some more, and woke up extra early, at 11 p.m.

Around midnight, we started up, and since it was closest, chose the left side of the rock prow above the bivy. Oleg and I swapped step-kicking duties, simul-soloing through (just as the ranger predicted) ever-changing snow conditions. We had it all; rotten frozen slush, good neve, powder that collapsed underneath your every step, bulletproof ice under snow. We could never let our guard down; every step seemed to be different, and we didn't know what expect next. Here's a pic of Oleg putting in steps.

 

Throughout the majority of upper Ridge, we stayed to the left, only being on the crest for a short while at around 11,500. We stopped beneath the final rock outcropping before heading up to the bergschrund to take some pics. One should note that, in a pinch, this could be dug for a small (read: VERY SMALL) emergency bivy site. Pics of the sun on it's way up, and looking east to the top of the Willis Wall.

 

We then traversed underneath the rock, and picked up old boot tracks that led up to the schrund. Upon looking again at the pic I took, the tracks from the others go far right. We went direct up the ice step; an easy ramp that went right, and then up and left to head onto the Liberty Cap Glacier (probably 65 degrees, AI2). I sunk a marginal (aren't they all?) picket prior to starting up the ice step, and put in both screws I had, as we did a running belay through the step. When I took off for the lead, I was briefly jealous of Oleg for bringing two tools, as the exposure is considerable, there. A pic of the upper icefall, and the bergschrund/ice step area.

 

Oleg took over kicking steps, as we ground our way up to Liberty Cap. On the way across the summit plateau, we decided to bypass the summit/register, and head down the Emmons, as I was feeling nauseated from the mystery drink that Oleg had in his water bottle (What the hell was that stuff, Oleg?) More evidence that Oleg is indeed a russian hardman; to drink that stuff at altitude...well, he has more "intestinal fortitude" than I do. Literally. We arrived at White River, 47 hours after the trip began.

 

Oleg, you're up. Post pics at will!

Edit: fixed the pics. Didn't like what the link to the gallery did to the pictures (too small)

 

Gear Notes:

Two screws, two tools (Oleg), tool and axe (me), spare perlon cord (didn't use, but nice to have, just in case), two quickdraws, and two pickets.

 

Approach Notes:

Snow free (or will be) up to St. Elmo's Pass. Liberty Ridge, within a couple of days won't be worth doing. Interglacier is creepy; tons of running water you can hear underneath you. Emmons Glacier is in great shape.

[Chriznitch]

nice work up there...way to cope with later season conditions and get the job done

[ivan]

oleg v - a persistent man! now that you've got this volcano shit done, my russian druk, it's time to start w/ the alpine rock beyatch! you know my schedule...

[OlegV]

Nice TR, Chad! I would rename the LR route into "EROTIC SUICIDE". It just doesn't let go. I think we hit the gates just before they closed shut, meaning LR will be out of shape by the next weekend.

 

Here is some more pictures of our trip.

 

Amazing sunset from the Curtis Ridge:

 

Upper LR viewed from the Carbon Glacier:

 

Chad at the 1st bivy site:

 

Chad staring at LR in anticipation:

 

Shielded from the rockfall. We narrowly escaped deadly rockfall and settled for a short rest somewhere at the half-point between the Carbon and TR:

 

Hardman TR bivy site: we dug a snow hole below the rock falling trajectory and slept our heads uphill.

 

Chad leading ice pitch of Libery Glacier bergschrund. We fully enjoyed solid ice and shortness of crossing:

[Alpinfox]

 

Way to go guys!

 

Beautiful pics!

[jeffh]

Nice going guys! Glad to see you dodgeball skills kept you safe. Nothing like wearing a helmet to encourage a deep, restful sleep!!

[turn_one]

here's to you v-dub

sounds like the weather was merciful to you afterall. glad you had a successful outing.

[sweatinoutliquor]

Friggan Awesome you guys!!! Way to get up there at this time of the year! Those photos are awesome! Something about that mountain just producing great photos! Anyway, congrats, and one heck of a big to ya both!

[Chad_A]

Thanks much for all the replies, and for stopping in to say "hi". It was fun; thanks to Oleg, as well, for being a good partner

[OlegV]

Thank you all! You right, Chad, our partnership worked out pretty well. The main thing, we had different whining phases - we never whined at the same time

[Monty_Smith]

We were the other team up there that Chad And Oleg saw. They passed us while camped on Curtis Ridge, we met up with them at Thumb Rock, and we graciously followed their bootprints to the summit.

 

Ours was a Himalayan shakedown climb. I’m putting together an unguided climb of Shishapangma for this fall, and the team flew out for teambuilding, gear shakedown, and see how we all get along. Our team was Valerie Hovland from CO, Eric Landstrom from WI, David Lew from TN and me, Monty Smith, from Portland. All of us have high-altitude experience, with Shishapangma being at least the third expedition for each of us.

 

Did we ever envy Chad and Oleg’s light packs! We planned on doing this siege style, similar to Shishapangma, so had everything with us, each laden with 50-60+ lbs of gear. Food for five days, four pickets and screws, two tents; I think one of us was even packing a kitchen sink. The objective was a shakedown and teambuilding trip, with the secondary objective to be the route itself. The plan was three days on the route, an extra day on the summit to explore the ice caves, and descend on the fifth.

 

We met and camped at White River CG, with the three of them meeting at SEA-TAC. We left for Glacier Basin Friday at 10:30 and had a reasonably leisurely hike to Curtis Ridge, arriving in the late afternoon. Plan was to rise at 3am, but the wind was so fierce, plus the forecast of an approaching front, that we opted to remain in bed to see if it calmed. By morning it looked good, the clouds remained below us, so we headed out mid-morning. Crossing the Winthrop was pretty straightforward. There were no less than three previous sets of tracks, which we followed. Chad/Oleg’s recommendation of a lower route was correct, as we ended up on the ridge too high and had to descend a few hundred feet to the ramp onto the Carbon.

 

As mentioned, the Carbon was no big deal. The rangers had warned us that it may be impassible, but we easily found routes through only two crevasse fields. The avalanche debris off Liberty Wall was totally awe-inspiring – the amount as well as how far it reached. It was also the obvious route onto the lower ridge. The previous night, we watched the hanging glacier atop the wall partially calve but not drop, so we were concerned with crossing the debris field should the calved portion fall.

 

Accessing the lower ridge through the Liberty Wall avy debris field

 

The climb to Thumb Rock was soft, but uneventful. We stayed roped with running belay the entire way, using 1-2 pickets per rope length, depending on steepness and snow conditions. Rockfall, which the rangers also warned us about, was non-existent. We saw some very faded tracks and were quite oblivious to another team being ahead of us until we topped out at Thumb Rock and found two guys preparing to bivy.

 

Climbing over a small rock band below Thumb Rock

 

We were up at 3am and on the route by 5am, again lugging the monstrous packs. At the first rock we traversed below it and around to the right, then followed Chad/Oleg’s tracks most of the rest of the way. Not much more to say about the conditions, other than to say 5am departure was too late – some of the soft snow had us very concerned with avy conditions. We used all four pickets before swapping leads, and could have used more to lengthen the time before the time-sapping lead swap. We intermittently used screws, but it was mostly snow.

 

Just a bit of exposure - maybe 4,000ft...

 

Approaching the ice cliff at the summit it appeared their tracks went further right, while we found an easy ramp straight up from the last (long) snowfield. Their description (ramp to the right, cut left) sounds the same, but we encountered nothing more than 30deg ice above the ramp, and straight up to the summit of Liberty Cap from there.

 

Our route up Liberty Ridge

 

Oddly enough, there were two pairs of snowshoes right below the cliffs. One pair was neatly stuck in the snow (looked like MSR Denalis) and the other pair haphazardly tossed lower. Given our packs and fatigue, we just left them.

 

We topped out mid-afternoon and camped in the saddle between Liberty Cap and Columbia Crest, for a well-needed rest.

 

Monday was for fun. Arising about 7:30 we leisurely broke camp and lugged packs over to the Emmons route and dumped them, then summited with only ice axe and crampons. Next we explored the ice caves on the side nearest the Emmons. I’d always wanted to explore them and was surprised how accessible (and totally cool!) they were.

 

Images from inside the ice caves.

 

One access point to the ice caves (on the N side right above the Emmons)

 

 

We began descending about 1pm and half walked, half swam through deep mush into Schurman, and finally to the cars by 7pm.

 

The best part of the trip wasn’t the route, which was great, but the team-building experience. We’re going to Tibet for up to two months (trying to tack Cho Oyo onto the end of the trip) and we’d only ‘met’ via telephone. Teamwork and rapport is of utmost importance to all of us, even having turned highly experienced climbers away whom we judged wouldn’t work well on the team. We all ‘bonded’ well, thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company, and for the remaining two months of planning, it was great to get to know each other under similar (if not more difficult) conditions than what we’ll experience in Tibet.

 

Edited on 7-6-05 to add the images.

Edited July 7, 2005 by Monty_Smith

[Chad_A]

Monty, I could give you a hand. Let me know what I can do.

 

The 65 degree part was a step that led directly up above me in the pic that Oleg posted; very short, though I'm not very good at judging measurements. It's the slab that's just ahead of me in that pic, if I remember right, but everything looked different then that when I was right up on it.

 

Glad you had a good time, and good luck to you on Shishapangma.

 

[thelawgoddess]

sweet! two tr's in one ...

[elandmann]

Gee Monty, I thought you would have got my last name right, as we were tentmates and all. I guess we will have 6 weeks in Tibet to get that straightened out. It's "Landmann". There will be a quiz.