Liberty Bell/Liberty Crack

Trip Report

Gear

• aid harness (used day 1-2)
• alpine harness (used day 3)
• 70 m single rope
• 60 m 8.0mm rope
• offset nut set
• brass offset nuts
• micro offset nuts
• 2 smallest ball nuts
• set of micro cams
• cams:
  • 2 ea .3-3"
  • 1 ea 4"
  • offset:
    • Metolius 00/0, 0/1
    • Alien green/yellow, yellow/grey, yellow/red
• beaks:
  • Black Diamond: 2x #1, 1 #1
  • Moses: 1x #1
• hooks:
  • Black Diamond: Cliffhanger, Talon (not sure if I actually used this)
  • Moses narrow Logan
• 2x ascenders
• 2 daisies per person (day 1-2), 1 daisy per person (day 3)
• Alfifi (only used day 1-2)
• 2 ladders per person (2 real ladders day 1-2 and 1 real and 1 pocket on day 3)

We found Steph Abegg's trip report for Liberty Crack to be incredibly useful.  We took a hybrid approach from her two times on the route.  On day one and two we hauled a bag and each person had two ladders.  Sarah jugged as I hauled and she had two ascenders.  I didn't have any ascenders.  However, when we ascended the fixed ropes at the beginning of day two and day three we used a one asceneder and grigri combo that works well for lower-angled terrain.  I borrowed one of Sarah's ascenders for this.  On day three we didn't use a haul bag and Sarah was belayed normally.  We each had one ladder and one pocket/alpine ladder.  We also used aid harnesses on days one and two, but switched to lighter alpine harnesses on day three. 

Day 1: Did Ingalls the day before, got to bed late, and had a late start. Did P0 and P1, fixed the rope, rappelled down, and camped in luxury at Klipchuck campground.  Was able to do most of the lower section free for P1, but the upper section was a bit too sustained, so aided sections.

Day 2: Jugged up to start of P2. Did P2 and P3, fixed the rope, rappelled down, and did some more camping.  The climbing was a bit more intimidating  on this day because of the Lithuanian Lip and P3 where there was mention of some unusable copperheads in Mountain Project comments.  Pitch 2 turned out to be doable and fun.  Good spot for a picture!  P3 would have been tough without some beaks.  I used Moses #1 and Black Diamond #1, #2 on this pitch.  I also used a BD Cliffhanger hook.  P2 and P3 were mostly aiding with some mandatory free sections.

We used the 8 mm rope for hauling our small bag.  We used rope of at least 8 mm, because this is the minimum diameter that is recommended to use with ascenders.  We fixed one rope from P3 anchor to P1 anchor and the other rope was fixed from P1 anchor to the ground.

Day 3: Started jugging up to start of P4 at around 6 AM.  On the way up we threw the 8mm rope to the ground after we ascended.  We weren't hauling anymore so we wouldn't need it.  We hiked to retrieve it later after we finished the route.  Then we worked through the rest of the pitches and ended up finishing in the dark. Kinda spooky! It was around 1 AM that we finished the route (still had to rappel and hike out though).  The rappels are the same ones used by Beckey route, so be sure to to bring a comfy pair of shoes for the hike out!  

Some notes on some of these pitches:

P7:  rotten block is kind of unnerving.  It is very crumbly.  I found a spot for a Moses narrow Logan that allowed  me to reach bolt to the right of the block.
P11:  my favorite pitch.  Long and sustained, but super fun.  Had to create an intermediate anchor.  Even more fun in the dark

Pitches mostly follow SuperTopo WA Pass book.
P0: low fifth: free
P1: 5.10+ C1+: mostly aid with some free
P2: 5.13b C2: mostly aid with some free
P3: 5.11+ C2: mostly aid with some free (used beaks and BD Cliffhanger)
P4: 5.10: free w/ french free here and there
P5: 5.8+: free
P6: 5.7: free
P7: 5.10c C1: free, aid (used Moses narrow Logan by Rotten Block to get to bolt (very cheeky placement))
P8: 5.8: free
P9: 5.7: free
P10: 5.6: free
P11: 5.9 free, french free with some occasional ladder usage (felt more 5.10 to me)
P12: 5.6: free
P13: walk

Opted to not do the last pitch of Beckey route to go to the summit because I had just done it the weekend before.

Map