[TR] North Cascades - Liberty Bell - Beckey Route 6/6/2014

[Knee_Deep]

Trip: North Cascades - Liberty Bell - Beckey Route

 

Date: 6/6/2014

 

Trip Report:

First trip report, so bear with me.

 

We drove up from Tacoma on the night of Thursday May 29th and arrived at the turn off for the Blue Lake trailhead parking lot around 10 PM. There was still a significant amount of snow on the ground (2 or 3 feet) and the parking lot had not been cleared. The night was clear and temperatures dropped to the low 30s. We awoke around 4 AM, had coffee and breakfast, packed up our gear, and began hiking around 5:15. The snow was firm and we boot tracked to the base of the slab in the gully where we put on our crampons. Worked our way up into the gully between Liberty Bell and Concord Tower and got to the saddle at 7:45. It was still quite cool because of the breeze and shade. Did some clothing adjustment, ate a second breakfast, and racked our gear. Never having climbed Liberty Bell, we took a while to find the start of Becky route. Not wanting to put my rock shoes on because of the temp, I led the first pitch in my mountaineering boots. Hunter led the second pitch which I followed in my boots. I followed in my boots and found the first few moves to be the crux which I would have wanted to do in rock shoes if I was on lead. I led the 3rd pitch in the sun and with rock shoes on. Fourth pitch was uneventful after moving the belay to below the "boulder move". I followed this in boots which made the friction climbing difficult (would have worn rock shoes on lead as well). Topped out around 10. Had to go through a little snow to get to the rap anchors. Two good raps and we were back in the gully with the sun shining. We opted to set up an anchor at the second rap station and top roped 3 separate lines up Overexposure. We found that the rock gets progressively more rotten the further right (East) you move. Headed down in softer snow (had warmed up to low 60s) with occasional thigh deep post-holing. Back to the car by 2:30 and then the long drive back to Tacoma.

 

Gear Notes:

One set of cams 0.5 - 2 inches with 6 alpine draws, one 120mm draw, locking biners, 60 m rope are all that is needed. Leave the nuts, tricams, hexes at home.

 

Approach Notes:

We saw only one other party of 2 there on our way down (they thought they were on the Beckey route, but were wrong). We were both not expecting it to be as cold as it was (I brought a light sleeping bag and no tent) nor there to be as much snow still as there was. Used crampons, trekking pole, and ice axe for approach. Glad we left when the snow was still hard.

 

Evidence of prior slides were seen once out of the woods in the valley while hiking up. If I was to do this any earlier in the season or with unstable snowpack I would stay way left (North) along the treeline.

[Trent]

Thanks for the report; headed up there on Monday.