Trip Report
Liberty Bell/Southwest Face
Memorial Day climb of Liberty Bell
Jianing Wang
- Sun, May 26, 2019
- Liberty Bell/Southwest Face
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Blue Lake trailhead parking lot was still somewhat snowed in. There is still snow on the approach but is melting fast. The gulley to the notch has exposed rocks, which made coming down in the afternoon a pain. We were still able to use the winter route from what snow was left. Crampons helped on the way up. Beware of postholing.
Leave TH: 0700
Notch: 0900
Start P1: 0945
End P4: 1230
Start rappelling: 1300
Back at notch: 1445
Cars: 1630
We got a later start than usual as we feared the route would be cold by the time we got there. We arrived just after another party while there was one more party after us. We climbed pretty much as a single party with 3 rope teams, each party setting up a rappel on the way down.
P1: Rock was cold, went above tunnel as there was ice at the bottom. Apparently a goat followed me halfway up.
P2: Chimney wasn't too bad. There's a piton somewhere in there, a bit of history.
P3: I thought the dihedral and roof traverse were more difficult than the chimney due to the awkward moves. Definitely not something you practice at the gym.
P4: Slab wasn't bad. Bouldering practice made this easy. You can stick a cam in the hole but it doesn't do anything.
After that I veered right belayed from the rappel tree. It's probably easier to do this pitch unroped. All pitches had trees to belay from.
Silver Star:
Other Cascades:
The first rappel is from a tree right below the summit. The second rappel is from a set of bolts 100 ft down on skier's right on a wall. One of the other climbers showed us where it was.
The third rappel station was quite tight and had some loose rocks marked with white 'X's. After that we were on the ledge at the notch just above our packs. The goat was still there, as well as another group who decided to come after the crowds.
Great conditions, no crowds, not too hot, moderate climbing. All in all, almost a perfect climb.
PC: Julia Syi
Thanks to Bri, Jack, Sam, and Doug for a great day.