[TR] Minute Man, Liberty Bell, Goat Wall- East Face, Barber Poll, Prime Rib 9/3/2005

[AlpineK]

Climb: Minute Man, Liberty Bell, Goat Wall-East Face, Barber Poll, Prime Rib

 

Date of Climb: 9/3/2005

 

Trip Report:

I wish I had pictures, but I left my memory card in my computer...yes I'm dumb:(

 

Cman couldn't leave Seattle till after 7:30 on Friday, so we didn't get to Washington Pass until late.

 

Sat 9/3 The Minute Man, East Face

 

The alpine start just wasn't going to happen this morning. We got up late, made coffee and drove up to the pass. The hike went by quickly, and we soon found ourselves debating where the route started. I thought the route finding on the first half of the climb was a little funky, and judging by all the tat on the cliff so did others. Eventually after a rotted pitch we got to the good part. Cman led a thin hands crack to an alcove below a roof. Rope drag stopped him from leading through, so I got the fun of leading it. Between the roof and the hand crack above it ended up being a great pitch. The temps were pretty chilly, so we didn't hang out on the summit too long. Rapping the gully inbetween the Minute Man and Liberty Bell was a little funky.

 

Sun 9/4 Liberty Bell, The Barber Poll

 

Saturday was cold, but Sunday was colder and cloudy. A good night sleep helped though. Hiking the same trail 2 days in a row is kind of a drag but once on the scree we headed out in a new direction. We scrambled past the bong and started doing some scary scrambling on the lower north face of the Bell. I set off this huge rockfall; fortunately the route isn't on the popular hit list so there was nobody to hit. Finally after passing a ton of rap slings we got to a ramp system that looked like the base of the route. The whole route isn't too hard, but it involves a lot of route finding; there's also a lot of traversing, so the feel of the route is more committing. While leading some run out slabs it started snowing lightly.

 

After 3 pitches we ran into the Independence Route which was nice. We were now on part of the route with a topo, but we found the topo unhelpfull. I ended up leading a pitch on the upper part of Thin Red Line. As we climbed it continued to snow and the rock started getting a little slick. Cman led a pitch to a stance under some roofs; we were both confused about the route, but I eventually led a traversing pitch that got me to a couple old rusty pins and what looked like the route. The rest of the route went easily, and the sun came out for us on the summit. The good weather didn't last long; we walked the road in a steady rain and were glad that we wern't up on the now soaked Peak.

 

Mon 9/5 Goat Wall, Prime Rib

 

2 days of freezing motivated us to do something sporty down in the Valley. We had a nice breakfast in Mazama and I picked up a topo of Prime Rib from the guide shack. The route's fun and sporty; unfortunately the FA crew placed way too many bolts. Never the less it was fun in the sun.

[cman]

Good times all around. the minuteman was really cool, the roof move was cool, more scary than hard.

barber pole was a fun route, after looking at the guide a few more times i can sort of match up the route with what we did. i think the route is supposed to go on a lower smaller ramp, not the bigger one above that we went up. but were that other ramp is i don't know.

i started to get a little worried when the snow began but AK did some good routefinding to keep us on track.

goat wall was cool, seemed really easy. it's nice of the guide shop to keep topos out for everybody, thanks.