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Page Type:
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Trip Report |
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Lat/Lon:
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48.51470°N / 120.6568°W |
Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Jul 17, 2004 |
Following a climb of Mt. Rainier and Ingalls Peak my partner Gail and I moved onto Snow Creek Wall and Leavenworth WA. Unfortunately a heat wave and a fire cancelled our plans. We moved onto our next plan of climbs in the Liberty Bell group. Our drive brought us up to Mazama and about 100 plus degrees of temperature. We were pleasantly surprised when we reached Lone Fir campground with very comfortable temperatures. Our plan for the next day was to do a climb of Liberty Bell followed by a climb of Concord Tower since both climbs share the same starting point.
Early the next morning we did the short drive up to the parking lot at the Blue Lake Trailhead. Just before getting to the parking lot, we got a great view of Liberty Bell and it's neighbors . We met Jerry and his wife Beth at the trailhead and picked their brains for some local information about the trail to Liberty Bell. Both Jerry and Beth had been up in the area before and knew the trail well. We hiked the trail along with them up to the branch where the route takes us up to the notch between Liberty Bell and Concord Tower The trail at this point was getting steeper, but still an easy to follow solid trail.
We reached the part where the trail steepens and contains lots of broken rock. We slowed down but continued on up. At this point we heard voices and saw a group of three coming up the trail behind us. They were moving fast and seemed to be intent on passing all of us. As the leader reached us (and passed us), he asked if we had climbed the route before. We both said "no" and the leader felt the need to explain the route, pitch by pitch, move by move, protection piece by protection piece (including a part about having to THROW a chock up above you to set it as protection before making some move) despite us not asking for any information. I couldn't decide if I should shove a large chockstone in his mouth to shut him up, or just turn around since there didn't seem much point in climbing the route since I felt like I already climbed it. Lucky for me, the decision was made since they left us behind and I didn't have to be rude :-)
We reached the notch and the group of three was gearing up. Actually I guess that's an overstatement. The leader was talking and not gearing up. After listening to him talk for about 30 minutes and still not get started on the route I realized that I would go crazy being stuck on the rock behind them. I told Jerry and Beth to take our place behind the group of 3 (we were ahead of them) and we would climb Concord Tower first.
The start up point was an obvious broken crack. This led up to to a branch. We could either climb up and to the left as the description from Summitpost says, or climb directly up the "5.10 Dihedral". The dihedral looked interesting, so I decided to go directly up. It was not 5.10 and most likely 5.7 or 5.8 at most, but an enjoyable pitch. Unfortunately from here we had to traverse left a LONG way. Another party later went directly up from the top of the dihedral . We however traversed to the left then started up a flaring crack system until I could traverse right to another crack system, and then climb up to a small bush that you can see in this picture . We found out later that we should have traversed even farther left to get in on the route described here in summitpost.com. From this bush we climbed directly up to the lieback crack described in the summitpost description. From here it was a short final section (unprotected) to the summit block. We had great views of the other teams on Liberty Bell, other peaks , and our favorite party of 3 were finally nearing the summit.
We rappelled back down our route, but found rappelling from the small bush a little scary. I tugged and pulled on the bush to see how it would hold and it was solid, but it was far from a bomber anchor. There were two prior slings left on the bush, and I added an old caribiner to help with the rope retrivial. Later from Liberty Bell we could see the rappel route (and the normal ascent route) farther off to the left of our route. Another rappel from the ledge lead back to our stuff and to our next climb of Liberty Bell . Please see that trip report for the rest of this story.
Early the next morning we did the short drive up to the parking lot at the Blue Lake Trailhead. Just before getting to the parking lot, we got a great view of Liberty Bell and it's neighbors . We met Jerry and his wife Beth at the trailhead and picked their brains for some local information about the trail to Liberty Bell. Both Jerry and Beth had been up in the area before and knew the trail well. We hiked the trail along with them up to the branch where the route takes us up to the notch between Liberty Bell and Concord Tower The trail at this point was getting steeper, but still an easy to follow solid trail.
We reached the part where the trail steepens and contains lots of broken rock. We slowed down but continued on up. At this point we heard voices and saw a group of three coming up the trail behind us. They were moving fast and seemed to be intent on passing all of us. As the leader reached us (and passed us), he asked if we had climbed the route before. We both said "no" and the leader felt the need to explain the route, pitch by pitch, move by move, protection piece by protection piece (including a part about having to THROW a chock up above you to set it as protection before making some move) despite us not asking for any information. I couldn't decide if I should shove a large chockstone in his mouth to shut him up, or just turn around since there didn't seem much point in climbing the route since I felt like I already climbed it. Lucky for me, the decision was made since they left us behind and I didn't have to be rude :-)
We reached the notch and the group of three was gearing up. Actually I guess that's an overstatement. The leader was talking and not gearing up. After listening to him talk for about 30 minutes and still not get started on the route I realized that I would go crazy being stuck on the rock behind them. I told Jerry and Beth to take our place behind the group of 3 (we were ahead of them) and we would climb Concord Tower first.
The start up point was an obvious broken crack. This led up to to a branch. We could either climb up and to the left as the description from Summitpost says, or climb directly up the "5.10 Dihedral". The dihedral looked interesting, so I decided to go directly up. It was not 5.10 and most likely 5.7 or 5.8 at most, but an enjoyable pitch. Unfortunately from here we had to traverse left a LONG way. Another party later went directly up from the top of the dihedral . We however traversed to the left then started up a flaring crack system until I could traverse right to another crack system, and then climb up to a small bush that you can see in this picture . We found out later that we should have traversed even farther left to get in on the route described here in summitpost.com. From this bush we climbed directly up to the lieback crack described in the summitpost description. From here it was a short final section (unprotected) to the summit block. We had great views of the other teams on Liberty Bell, other peaks , and our favorite party of 3 were finally nearing the summit.
We rappelled back down our route, but found rappelling from the small bush a little scary. I tugged and pulled on the bush to see how it would hold and it was solid, but it was far from a bomber anchor. There were two prior slings left on the bush, and I added an old caribiner to help with the rope retrivial. Later from Liberty Bell we could see the rappel route (and the normal ascent route) farther off to the left of our route. Another rappel from the ledge lead back to our stuff and to our next climb of Liberty Bell . Please see that trip report for the rest of this story.