OlegV Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Trip: Liberty Ridge - Erotic Suicide Date: 6/29/2013 Trip Report: The mountain almost blinded me because I betrayed two women and was cursed by a gypsy and a witch. They wanted to see me failed or die, but I just laughed at them and left the town. I wanted to solo the Ridge to prove my love to HIM in exchange to MY own immortality. We had each other now and forever. HE loved me unconditionally, leaving me with a sharp taste of blood in my mouth mixed with the feel of fear and extreme exhaustion. For four hours I follow the climbing birds Tom, Joe and Patrick to the Curtis camp. I suddenly see a mountain queen Nastia sitting at the toe of the Carbon glacier - I am suddenly in a safe company of my friend. I think again, HE doesn’t play a dice, HE violently shifts our future. We live, we climb, or we die, not sure why. We cross the Carbon bound by a thin rope... The curse of the woman wasn’t strong enough to kill me. I hear a whipping sound as a solid cube of death hits the ledge, flies toward me, missing my head by an inch. I kiss the Ridge and push on up the mountain. A single push to the Thumb rock makes you tired when you are double-twenty, although there is no such thing as age, as we know it. There is no bad or good either. We are nothing but bio-recycling machines…up to the point when we get hit by a flying rock, fall in the crevasse, or die from a heart attack or overeating. Patrick’s team is flying up the ridge as if they have invisible wings; we follow, reluctantly observing the approaching avalanche, spitting out the river of ice along the right slope of the ridge. It would kill us all if we lived in the alternative universe. Finding comfort in the shade of the Willis Wall turns you into a slave of dark angels. They live here, wandering between slopes and ice cliffs, touching and dislodging piles of loose rocks, sticking out their sharp tongues, grimacing. As we try to prove our immortality, they flip a dice and play their games. I wonder where you go when you get chosen by a dark angel. I’d like to be a part of an ice cliff, and I will be, some sunny day… At the Thumb rock we meet several other teams, love their company and laugh. We leave last at 3 am, following the deep tracks of our comrades. We see their faint headlamps glaring at the far distance. We follow a beautiful ridge line, enjoying easy climbing, bright stars, and the calmness of the night. The Ridge is simple, but the oxygen is sparse. Feeling tired, we get to the top of the snow ramp and rest, consuming liquid REI energy and Safeway leftovers. Our stomachs resist, but we insist on quick digestion and simple sugar for our muscles and brains. As we get to the bergschrund, Nastia leads the ice pitch. Suddenly, as I follow, my sunglasses break exposing my left eye to a deadly Rainier sun, I drop a piece of pro, feeling irritated and angry at myself. I am still being cursed by a woman. Nastia lowers me into the crevasse to retrieve a piece. We push on… We are finally standing at the base of the exit ramp looking at the Liberty Cap. Ignoring existing tracks, Nastia leads a steep and rotten pitch of black ice mixed with fresh snow and melting slash. Wet slide is very possible here. I follow, celebrating the arrival of the flat world of the Liberty Cap. We descend… Carbon from Curtis ridge: Liberty Ridge in the morning: Crossing Carbon: Joe and friends at the base of the shrund below Thumb rock: To the Thumb! At the Thumb rock camp: Starting up the upper ridge in the morning: Liberty Gl.: Pano from 13200': Crossing the Liberty shrund: Black ice to the summit ridge: On the Liberty Cap: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YocumRidge Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Oleg, thanks for the great trip and TR! Now, Canadian Rockies! Huge props to the RockyJoe's team for letting Oleg to rope up with while on Winthrop! 3.5 hrs from the car to Carbon is way to go, guys! Here is one more pic of Joe, Tom and Patrick crossing the Carbon seracs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cascade Kid Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Crack kills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougd Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 This was a fun TR to read, and really enjoyed the pics. Gonna climb this route someday when I grow up... d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaleHoopes Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Nice work! It's great to see what the route looked like a few days after we retreated. Too bad we didn't have a flexible enough window. Nice send! Oleg, how did Nastia's boots do for her? I was about to rock the Phantom Guides up there and was curious about her experience. Nice send! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevetimetravlr Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Nice work and great photos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 ah yes, the route that I doubt will ever be ... eluded again molodtsi, vy, dvoye gornykh maniakov :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Beautiful shots of a beautiful trip with a beautiful woman. Glad you didn't win a Darwin award trying to get this one: [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/9196009765_fda4ec54fd_b.jpg[/img] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 I am still trying to figure out if Oleg was calling Anastasia a gypsy AND a witch, ... but seems from the epic summit shot with only 1 lens left in sunglasses that you are still alive Oleg so I guess not... Nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNumberNine Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Oleg, Patrick here. Great meeting you and hanging out last weekend.. What a climb! Glad to hear you guys made it to the top.. Pretty splitter day to stand on top of Rainier. Thanks for the trip report! -Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YocumRidge Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Cale, Nil Desperandum, you will get it soon! Re: boots. The primary purpose of my Phantom Guides was for ice cragging, but since most my single boots are heavily worn out, the PG begun get used for the bigger stuff like Lib Ridge or Ptarmigan IceCliff, as was yesterday, and now officially became my favorites. As a matter of fact, two weeks ago I got a very extensive III degree burn on the arch of my foot and was really having second thoughts whether/how I will even make it to the base of the ridge. As we all know, the route requires fully functional pairs of extremities and the boots made it possible - I did not even notice I had them on . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YocumRidge Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 I am still trying to figure out if Oleg was calling Anastasia a gypsy AND a witch... Haha, no, not me! I bet Oleg would need to elaborate more to clarify this ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 I am still trying to figure out if Oleg was calling Anastasia a gypsy AND a witch... Haha, no, not me! I bet Oleg would need to elaborate more to clarify this ! tsyganochka moya, morganochka moya... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaleHoopes Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Thanks for the review of the boots! Especially when you had an injury. I'm a believer. They seemed to do well to the approach and climb really well when we started up the steeper sections of the Carbon. Great climb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlegV Posted July 9, 2013 Author Share Posted July 9, 2013 Guys, I am not crazy!!!! Mount Rainier is the place to regain your sanity and escape the world of misery and human lie!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlegV Posted July 9, 2013 Author Share Posted July 9, 2013 I am still trying to figure out if Oleg was calling Anastasia a gypsy AND a witch... Haha, no, not me! I bet Oleg would need to elaborate more to clarify this ! tsyganochka moya, morganochka moya... Read Russian classic, my friend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlegV Posted July 9, 2013 Author Share Posted July 9, 2013 I am still trying to figure out if Oleg was calling Anastasia a gypsy AND a witch, ... but seems from the epic summit shot with only 1 lens left in sunglasses that you are still alive Oleg so I guess not... Nice one! I got my face in the cake, but we did summit a big baby twice in the last 10 days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeycrouch Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Great TR... We summited the day before you and enjoyed the solitude of having that side of the mountain to ourselves for our entire climb. The fresh snow from the week before tested our endurance as we post-holed up the snowfields to thumb rock and beyond, but the cloud we climbed into at the top (visible from the first picture) gave us the most trouble, as we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us and ended up camping up top for 7 hours until the sun broke through. Going from the trailhead to Thumb Rock is definitely what I would do next time - though I'm glad we didn't plan on it as we spent a good amount of time navigating the glacier without any wands or tracks to follow. It looks like you may have seen the circles we went in before we found our way across that sketchy bridge you took a picture on top of! Cheers, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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