Liberty Bell, SW Early Winter with 50m rope?

[Blacklab]

Does a single 50 meter rope get me to the ground on the descent for the SW Routes (5.6) on both spires?

[DPS]

SEWS definitely, Liberty Bell you may have to use some intermediate anchors.

[genepires]

south arete of SE winter, yes. Use knots on the end except for the one rap with lots of snaggy trees in the way. I would say this is the first of three raps that lead to the ground. Also this tree anchor is not easy to find. it is not used on the way up. But if you are at the top of the third pitch, on a easy ledge, if you were to look climbers right, you will see a scrubby tree. below this tree and to the climbers left is a good tree with slings. it is easy to get to but it is exposed, so a simple belay is good to get to do for this.

If you use the small scruffy tree at the top of pitch three along the route, I am not sure your 50m rope will reach the next anchor.

 

for sw of the bell route, there is one bolted anchor that reaches the ground if you use a pair of 60 m ropes. There is a good solid tree part way down but I think that it is still greater than 25 m from this tree to the ground. not really sure about this though. The rappel line goes from the bolts, past a tree, down a small gulley/corner and then trends skiers right to the saddle between lib bell and concord. At this trend right portion, there was a small solid tree that I used to split up the rappels to minimize the chance of getting rope stuck when pulling. It had rings on it but I am not sure of the health of the tree now. It has been a while since I did that route but I seem to remember that the tree was not doing well last time. Use knots on the ends of your rope for sure.

best option is to wait for someone else to setup their rope and go down on theirs.