Liberty Crack

[geoff]

Ben, his mother and I left Ptown about 8:30 pm on Thurs. with our sights set on CBR. Morning came quickly at the free camp site near Bridge Creek and we were at the Ranger Station by 7:45 am for the low odds lottery. There was one permit and at least three groups wanting to go.

 

We were not successful in our first bid but had hopes of scoring a possible no show at 9:00 am. During this time we sized up our competition. It was down to us and them. Or rather her. Turns out she has been following me ever since we met up on Broadway Ledge the weekend before in Squamish.

 

Anyhows, since this report is titled Liberty Crack you probably know that we didn't get the no show either. We headed north.

 

Arrived at the pull out at about 3:30 pm sorted gear and then headed to the base. At the base we find some fairly solid snow and a few feet to climb before reaching the rock. Once in the moat we were greeted by a fairly fresh turd. Anyone want to own up to it? Well, by the time we got the first pitch up it was 7:30 pm or so so we fixed the rope and we headed down to get some sleep. We fixed another rope across the snow for ease of going down and back up in the pre-dawn hours. The Early Winter Creek site was pretty nice.

 

4:30 am arrives, we get in the car and head back up to the base. It was light by now but the fixed rope up the snow slope was a welcome sight for this apline stranger. Jugged to our previous high point and got after it.

 

Somewhere above the lip I watched some folks come walking up a much steeper and longer snow slope to climb Lexington Tower. They were kind enough to take some photos of me.

 

 

 

Well, they were running up the rock and soon disappeared. We made it up by 7:30 pm and down to the car by about 11:30 pm where Ben's mother had some delicious hot food for us from town.

 

The climb was tougher than I expected but did appear to have escape anchors all the way up to the Rotten Block. We didn't have to use them but it was nice to know they were there.

 

More photos and better TR to follow.

[DirtyHarry]

We made it up by 7:30 pm and down to the car by about 11:30 pm where Ben's mother had some delicious hot food for us from town.

 

Sweet.

 

I'm not sure CBR is within the permit area. If it is, its off the beaten path. Its also fairly reasonable to do in a day. Good job on Lib Crack though - a good consolation.

[ivan]

yeah, i was confused by this too - isn't it still legal to bivy sans permit on the rocks at the far end of colchuck lake, below d-tail?

 

excellent kick-save after the cbr wave-off though