[TR] WA Pass - Something on Liberty Bell's NF and SE Butt. SEWS.

[Dannible]

Trip: WA Pass - Something on Liberty Bell's NF and SE Butt. SEWS.

 

Date: 8/19/2006

 

Trip Report:

So far this winter I have been shut down over and over by bad weather and poor snow/ice conditions; for this reason, I often find myself daydreaming about future climbs and those of this past summer. One that I was thinking back on today took place somewhere between the North Face Direct and the NW Face routes on Liberty Bell, and might share it's last pitch with the NW Face (5.9 dihedral). I meant to post something on this long ago, but alas, I am lazy. If someone knows anything about this route let me know. It is not in the CAG, but I'm hesitant to call it a FA because after all, it is Liberty Bell.

 

I was still tired and blistered after a long three day trip to Mt. Goode earlier in the week, and work had kept my friend Michael from doing any climbing for two months prior, so we decided that slow and relaxed couple of days at WA Pass would be just the ticket. Our plan was to climb the North Face of Liberty Bell, sleep on the summit, and hit up the SW Buttress on SEWS the next day.

 

The approach to the North Face is pretty straightforward: park at the Blue Lake trail head, walk down HW 20 until you can see the face, bushwhack for about 30 minutes, then do some scree (or snow earlier in the year I guess) walking for a while until you are at the high point in the scree (or snow) field. I found a super old piton with “Switzerland” imprinted on it in the scree that must have been dropped on an early attempt or FA. From the top of the scree we chopped a few steps on a patch of ice with sharp rocks, then worked our way up 3rd and 4th class rock to red gully. It is here, I think, that we should have roped up and started going up and to the left if we wanted to do the original NF route. Instead we went up the gully and roped up to get around a giant chock stone that blocked the way. Near the top of the gully I belayed Michael up to talk things over. I didn't know where our intended route was, but I knew that the left facing corner a pitch above us looked like a good time, so adventuring we went.

 

I lead a loose but easy (5.5?) rope length pitch to a ledge at the base of the left facing corner, and after bringing Michael up I went up and to the right on an easy slab just to check out what was around the corner. I was surprised to find that ten feet below was a big tree covered bench and a trail, where, I later learned, the NW Face starts. I went back down to the belay and headed up and left to to the left facing corner. This steep 5.9 pitch was slightly loose but was one of the coolest pitches that I have climbed. It included liebacks, stemming, face climbing, and good pro. I stretched the rope a bit to belay off of a tree, making the pitch about 61 meters.

 

We scrambled up to a big ledge and after eating lunch and watching para gliders for a while, I started up a shallow, flaring crack that seemed to be our best option. It was not long before I was aiding up the crack with small nuts. About 40 feet up the crack was an old pin with an old sling tied to it that I think had been used to lower off of. I aided another 10 feet or so before the crack became too flared to place gear in. After a few free moves I aided off a tipped out cam with only three lobes in the crack, and after no small amount of hesitation made a few moves of 5.10 on crumbling rock with nothing but the shitty cam, a couple of little brass nuts, and the old pin between me and the ledge (I was comfortable leading 5.9 at the time). I let out a loud “YEAH!” when I finally grabbed a nice big flake above. 10 easy feet higher I belayed off a small ledge and felt that nice high that comes along with a pitch of that nature. Michael freed most of the pitch but climbed the rope through the harder parts.

 

Michael following the aid pitch.

 

From here a 30 foot 5.8 rightward traverse led to a fun left facing 5.9 dihedral that might be the last pitch of the NW Face too. Above this we simulclimbed (could have soloed) easy ground to the top, watched the sunset, and bivied in a good spot right on the summit.

 

I woke up at sunrise to take some pictures, then fell asleep for a few more hours. By the time we started descending at 9, our views were pretty much ruined by smoke from all of the fires.

 

 

 

 

We climbed the SW Buttress of SEWS, which was fun (you don't really need big cams to protect it), and walked back to the car.

Me on the bearhug pitch on SEWS.

 

Moral of the story: climbing routes that you know nothing about can be a lot of fun. We did the route on Liberty in 5 (mostly full length) pitches, and I would say that it is grade III 5.10 A2+ (the aid might have been harder or easier, I am not an aid climber).

 

Gear Notes:

Cams to 2" and lots of small nuts. TCUs would have been nice. I had an alpine aider and used slings as the other aider. Cams to 3.5 worked for SEWS, as you can get nuts deep in the wide cracks.

 

Approach Notes:

Look at north face from road, walk towards it.

[Dannible]

The date on this is misleading. I know little about time travel and did not go into the future to go climbing. The year selector thing does not give 2006 as an option.

 

Ok, I figured out how to change the date.

Edited January 2, 2007 by Dannible

[BirdDog]

Thanks for the date clarification; thought this was DTR - Dream Trip report. Nice sunrise pics.

[Dannible]

I think this is about what we did. Anyone know anything about it?