Concord Tower/North Face

AK and I both joined the masses going up the Liberty Bell / Concord gulley and got in line at the notch. There were 2 slow groups on the tunnel route and 1 very slow group on the North Face proper. Instead of climbing below them on the Patriot Cracks we opted to go up the "Directismo" variation of the NF. It's a 3 pitch climb that goes straight up a crack system to the notch at the top of the tunnel route. It's kind of gravelly, flaring, wide and awkward in places but it has good hands and feet where you want them most. In basic climb fashion, I lead all the pitches and AK followed. From the summit we rappelled the SF of Concord in 2 easy raps off of fixed anchors (bolts), so we descended the completely uninhabited and very simple Concord/Lexington gulley until we picked up the main climbers path back to Blue Lake TH.