[TR] Liberty Bell - Thin Red Line 6/26/2010

[dberdinka]

Trip: Liberty Bell - Thin Red Line

 

Date: 6/26/2010

 

Trip Report:

Clear skies, dry rock, long days, no mosquitoes and plenty of snow for an easy descent. It doesn’t really get any better. Which begs the question, where in the hell was everybody?

 

Well it had been three years since I had made it up to Washington Pass and at least six years since I had climbed Liberty Bell. WTF? There’s just not enough time anymore for all the things I might like to do. Drove up to the pass Friday afternoon lolly-gagging along with our road sodas and parked it at the Cutthroat Trail Head for the night just like the good old days.

 

Woke up stupid early, but already the eastern sky had taken on a soft glow. It’s a nice time of year for the alpine start. The approach is still snow from the road, and while it was frozen hard its sun cupped enough that we managed in our tennis shoes. Sun finally broke over Kangaroo Ridge just as we started climbing leaving us slightly overheated most of the day.

 

Having never done the route before I had always had the impression that the route was a stellar looking line that was actually sort of mediocre on mediocre rock. As it turns out the climb is excellent, a genuine classic, and pretty darn chill in its current state.

 

The original first pitch looks crappy but there’s a nice pitch of bolted face climbing (5.10?) that leads almost directly to the anchor. Owen led that then I set of short-fixing through the next four pitches of aid that we figured were sort of the meat of the climb. This was all quite nice with lots of easy aid, the occasional tricky bit (C2ish) and some fun, easy free climbing. There is a lot of fixed gear currently on route particularly at what might be considered the cruxes. The beginning of pitch 2 is a C1 clip-up on many fixed lost arrows and the double roof of pitch 5 has some pins and a welded beak near the lip that kept it casual. I thought the start of Pitch 5 with the pendulum to hook moves (or mantle) off the belay on an otherwise blank face was really neat and the highlight of the climb for me.

 

I had the impression that someone might have fixed all this gear recently to work it as a free climb, or has it always been like that?

 

After clearing the roof we went back to pitching it out and were pleased to find continued excellent climbing. Pitch 6 offers some nice moderate crack climbing to the first good belay ledge on the route where we had a lunch break. Pitch 7 might be the most aesthetic of the route, long, vertical and clean on great rock.

 

Plugging along we eventually made M&M then lost some time finding the route above. Make sure to start up the partially-hidden left-trending ramp directly above the right edge of the ledge. Again I had figured the upper pitches would be crappy as most topos say things like “loose blocks” but again we both though the climbing was great. Plenty of good rock with a long fun layback, some nice face climbing followed by some splitter hand cracks. The slab traverse up high was trivial and the climb finished with some nice crack climbing along the arête separating the north and east faces.

 

This time of year the descent is a real joy as the chossy approach gully on the west side is still filled with snow.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable this route was and would highly recommend it. We climbed it at 5.10 C2, though with a couple hook moves between bolts on the first pitch it could go at 5.8 C2. The climbing seemed to be about the same difficulty as Green Drag-On or Town Crier. None of the belay ledges looked at all comfortable and hauling above M&M ledge would be horrible. I think the best strategy would be to fix and fire or just fire.

 

Grievously sprained my ankle while walking on flat grass the following day and am now hobbling around on crutches so my summer might be over just after it began. But it sure was good while it lasted!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Double rack to #2 C4s along with a #3 and #4 worked great though you could probably drop the #4 and be fine. Definitely include some offset nuts and micronuts and some small single-stem cams if you’ve got them.

 

Climbing this route hammerless seems highly dependant on the presence of copious amounts fixed gear. I would definitely bring a small rack of pins in case some of it goes missing. Next time I’ll bring a #2 & #3 copperhead, a #2 and #3 LA and a ½” and 5/8” angle just in case.

 

Edited June 30, 2010 by dberdinka

[wayne]

Nice job, Darrin, hope that wheel gets better.

[tomtom]

Sounds like new fixed gear. The move over the second roof on p5 can be the crux of the route, so if there is fixed gear there, it is new.

[ivan]

good work beat'n the 'skeeters - the true crux of all wa pass routes!

[Pete_H]

I agree with TomTom's assessment. I remember the 5th pitch requiring some funky inverted cam hook action and not any fixed gear.

[Sol]

TRL has been freed by at least a couple of parties at 12b/c, maybe more. They have fixed some gear. Please leave it in, i'm hoping to give it a burn soon. You mentioned dry rock, was the route totally dry?

Edited June 30, 2010 by Sol

[tomtom]

They have fixed some gear. Please leave it in, i'm hoping to give it a burn soon.

 

By fixing gear at the cruxes, the morons have destroyed the character of the route turning it into another Vantage style clip-up.

 

Just bolt the damn thing and get it over with. Just like at Index.

[Pilchuck71]

Nice Darin -

Sorry to hear about the ankle.

Looking forward to the pics.

 

[Sol]

They have fixed some gear. Please leave it in, i'm hoping to give it a burn soon.

 

By fixing gear at the cruxes, the morons have destroyed the character of the route turning it into another Vantage style clip-up.

 

Just bolt the damn thing and get it over with. Just like at Index.

 

Sounds like a mouthful of internet speculation there tomtom. Do you know wtf your talking about?

 

I know they bolted two variation pitches and fixed two pins, one of which blew on a free attempt and was not replaced. So, chances are you can blame most of the proliferation of fixed gear on aid climbers and most likely that shits clogging up the good jams. It does seem thought that the E face of liberty bell might stir some aid vs. free discusssion.

[telemarker]

Nice Darin, and as always, great photos.

 

From what I remember of the 2nd pitch, after attempting it a number of times 3 to 4 years ago, it had one fixed pin at the overlap just off the belay, and another fixed pin partway up the big corner. Those were the only fixed pieces. The super thin portions went clean with a ballnut and camhooks.

[Pilchuck71]

Nice photos Darin, thanks for adding them.