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The Intimidating East and North East Faces of Liberty Bell
(Fortunately our route went up the backside!) I have long heard Liberty Bell mentioned in reverential terms, but never paid much attention to it since all the pictures I saw were of the awe inspiring east face, home to such routes as Liberty Crack, (Grade V, class 5.9 A2) which are way beyond my meager climbing abilities. However, recently I had heard someone else mention that there was an easier route up the back of the peak and my “Cascade Alpine Guide” revealed that this was a 3 pitch 5.6 route called the Beckey (or Southwest Face) route (Since Fred Beckey actually did the first ascent in 1946!). Even taking into consideration the fact that I’ve done hardly any rock climbing in the last 3 or 4 years, I figured I should still be able to grovel my way up an easy 5.6 (rated) climb!

After a fun warm up scramble on Chair Peak (near Snowqualmie pass, WA) Saturday, Paul and I were psyched to do the Beckey Route. That evening while we sat enjoying our pints of Guinness at the Fado Irish Pub in Seattle we hatched a cunning plan to avoid the usual weekend crowds that queue up for the route. We decided that by sleeping in and getting a relatively late start, we could arrive at the base of the route when everyone else was finished. It’s amazing what sacrifices you sometimes have to make to ensure a successful ascent! This seemed like such a good plan that it was necessary to toast the idea with another round of pints….

True to plan, we were on the road by 9:00 the next morning. As we drove the increasingly scenic roads through Darrington, Rockport and on into the Ross Lake National Recreation Area I began to get my usual preclimb jitters, but the beauty of the final climb into the Washington Pass area helped distract me. We arrived at the Blue Lake trailhead at around noon and quickly did a final gear sort while fending off hordes of hungry mosquitoes; I hadn’t even thought to bring any bug dope.

Looking up the approach route to the back of Liberty Bell The view from the parking lot of Liberty Bell’s North West face was not as intimidating as I had expected and my early nervousness soon disappeared as we began hiking up through the forest. Shortly after the beginning of the trail, a dog belonging to some other hikers decided that he’d rather be with us and followed along until we reached the turn off for the Liberty Bell climbing routes. This gave us an excuse to rest and cool off as we waited for the hikers to catch up to take charge of their dog once again. I wonder what they would have done if we continued up toward Liberty Bell with their dog trailing along behind? Not that I really blame the dog; what we were up to was far more interesting anyway!

We continued sweating our way up the climbers trail under the blazing sun, the beautiful granite boulder meadows and slopes dotted with Larch. The views as we ascended were literally breathtaking (at least that’s my excuse), the terrain reminding me of the high Sierra and Tuolumne Meadows of California. Just as we reached the last section before the Liberty Bell / Concord Tower Notch, two other climbers emerged ahead of us and we thought for a moment that our plans had been foiled but fortunately they were heading up another route on Concord Tower.

Me looking a little shaky on the first pitch When we reached the notch we stashed our superfluous gear and scrambled along a ledge to the start of the climb, ecstatic to find that there was no one else in sight on our route. Before I could get too nervous about climbing, I grabbed the rope and rack and headed shakily up the easy, low 5th class rib and chimney of the 1st pitch. The rock was highly featured, grippy yellow granite that was a joy to climb on.

At the top of the first pitch, I anchored off to a convenient belay tree and looked up at the bottom of the next pitch. “Wow”, I thought, looking at the near vertical chimney splitting the rock above me. “Paul is not going to have fun on this!” The second pitch is variously rated 5.4 – 5.6 but it sure looked a lot harder than that to my eyes. A guilty wave of relief washed over me as I realized that I had definitely made the right choice in selecting the 1st pitch as my lead!

Paul taking a break on the second pitch Paul cruised up the first pitch and we exchanged gear on the wide ledge below the second. He didn’t seem too concerned about the climb facing him at first but as he began to work his way up the bottom few feet, he lost a little of his cockiness. By the time he was 15 feet up he was cursing and gladly grabbed and clipped a captive sling someone had left behind, jammed under a small chockstone. From there an awkward traverse move got him onto a small ledge for a rest before he continued up the opposite side of the chimney, cursing the rack when it caught on the rock as he struggled his way up the confined space. As the difficulties subsided, he made short work of the lower angled upper chimney which was full of large, somewhat hollow sounding blocks. A couple minutes after he disappeared out of sight, he called for me to take him off belay.

It was now my turn to struggle, thrash and heave my way up the same moves. I shamelessly hung off the fixed, cheater sling as I traversed onto the rest ledge, then continued strenuously upward, sounding more and more like a steam locomotive as I forced my way forward. I belly flopped like a fish out of water onto the low angle slab at the top of the chimney, dreading what I would see above for what was supposed to be the last and “crux” pitch. Surprise, surprise; all I saw were easy angled slabs full of generous hand and finger sized cracks. I was psyched and elated.

Me on the Delightful 3rd Pitch We moved the belay for the next pitch up the 3rd class slab slightly to avoid as much rope drag on the final pitch as possible. I took the rack and several slings and padded easily up a low angled grove until I reached a small overhang. This was supposedly the location of the “crux” move that Beckey describes as “Make a 4 ft leftward finger traverse across a vertical slab”. Well, this slab turned out to be much less than vertical with a rough surface that provided almost “Spiderman” like traction. Still, I was happy to clip an extra long sling into the fixed pin just below this traverse before moving with surprising ease across and then up. A final short, easy and delightful "Deidre" (the route on the Apron of the Squamish Chief) like dihedral brought me to the top of the pitch where I fired in 3 cams for a belay. Paul near the top of the final (3rd) pitch Paul again cruised up with no apparent difficulty and we both marveled how anyone could think this pitch harder than (or even as hard as) the previous chimney.

After untying and stashing the rope, we continued scrambling up 3rd class rock to the summit, slowed down briefly by a 10 foot high “5.7” slabby boulder move. The view from the top was nothing short of breath taking and I spent a bunch of time taking endless photos with both my digital and film cameras. What an awesome climb in such spectacular surroundings! We were soon joined on the summit by two guys who had just simul-climbed the route in less than 30 minutes. Not too bad considering it took us around 2 and a half to 3 hours! They soon headed down and we again had the summit to ourselves as we watched other climbers on the adjacent Concord Tower.

Finally, after drinking our fill of our stunning surroundings, we too headed down, scrambling along a series of ledges until we reached the first (bolted) rappel station. The two simul-climbers were just setting up for a rappel and I suggested we tie our ropes together so we could all get back down to the notch in one rap. This sounded good to everyone and we were soon all back down to where we started. Unfortunately, the mountain didn’t want to let us go quite so quickly, because as we pulled the ropes, the tail of the second rope managed to tie itself around a tree halfway down so well that our best efforts to dislodge it were in vain. Suddenly my idea of saving time didn’t seem so good after all!

Paul checking out the awesome view from the Summit One of the two simul-climbers, having worked themselves into a powerful appetite on the way down with talk of greasy hamburgers and cold beer, immediately tied into the rope that was down and got me to belay him as he swarmed up the 5.9 looking headwall. In short order he had the snarled rope untangled and was on his way back down from the lower, single rope rappel station. I was just happy that we hadn’t had to deal with stuck rope by ourselves!

We made our way back down the climbers trail and back to the cars in a wonderful state of post climb bliss that lasted for hours. After a quick drive to a viewpoint further down the road to view the “El Cap” like East face of Liberty Bell and the Early Winter Spires, we turned around and headed back west. Before parting ways in Arlington (where I’d left my Jeep), Paul and I stopped for the traditional post climb supper at a good but inexpensive little Mexican Restaurant. By this time it was almost 9 pm and high time for us to head home, Paul to Seattle, and I to Vancouver.

Post Script:

This is an awesome, easy alpine climb that I would highly recommend to anyone. On weekends come really early or quite late and still expect that you may have to wait. There are as many protection placements on the route as you could every want. (See the gear list for pro beta.) As usual we brought way too much gear (just ask Paul).

Good luck; I hope you have as much fun as we did!

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Details:

Date:  June 20, 2004   (1 day)
Participants: Brad Braun, Paul Raymond
Gear:  Single rope, small rack of cams and few mid to large size nuts, several slings (at least one double length), helmet. Early season the approach may require an ice axe and / or crampons
Rating: Grade I-II, 5.6

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All Images Labeled PR Courtesy Paul Raymond