September 28 2024
I kept telling myself that I’m bad at navigation. But I’m really not that bad at it. I just repeatedly haven’t been studying the beta well enough. I told this to myself as Miles and I set up a belay at what we thought would be the start of the Liberty Bell Fred Becky route (Southwest Face). We soon found that as Miles started climbing, that the route was covered in moss and was likely not the route established by Becky in 1946.
It was about 10am and it had taken us just an hour to get to the base of Liberty Bell (and about 2.5hrs to get to the trailhead). It was chilly belaying in the shade since the start of the climb was in the saddle between Liberty Bell and Concord Tower. However, before long Miles had made his way up and was belaying me up through the chimney.
The next several pitches went by uneventfully. This was partly because of the ease of the route, but also partly because we had copies of the climbing sketches from Washington Weekender. This help us establish anchors in the right places and swing leads to the top without much trouble. Before long, was sound asleep on the summit with sweeping views of the Liberty Bell group. We also had views of other prominences, such as Elderado and Glacier peaks.
We took our time deliberating about the correct rappel route. Before long we were rapping down a piece of tat I found near the top; allowing us to avoid having to down climb the final boulder problem. We found all three sets of rappel rings and enjoyed the fast descent.
Miles rapping down the final pitch.
Before long, we were scrambling down the scree slopes back to the Blue Trail. We both took falls since the scree was very loose and often the rocks would collapse underneath us. Once hitting the trail it was an easy 2 mile descent.
Larches had just started to emerge. Next weekend will likely be the main event.a
On the descent, we talked about the wonders of having such incredible landscapes in our backdoors. We talked about how great it is being able to build expertise in the environment around you, and knowing where and how to enjoy that environment without much expense. This contrasts with traveling to unknown lands where you don’t have the knowledge of the area, and almost by necessity need to buy that knowledge you don’t live there. By this logic, it’s almost as if your experience are correlated with the amount you spend.
We reached the base and started looking for our campsite. On the summit, we had spoken with a couple of other climbers who recommended camping on Lost River Road in Mazama. We made our way out there, past ‘downtown’ Mazama, past the two campsites and onto some great dispersed camping at the end of the road, maybe three miles down.
I washed up in the river and brought my body temp well belong comfort. So Miles and I set up a fire and warmed up with some tea. We called it early, around 9pm, since we were starting to feel some raindrops. I read a few pages of Sirens of Titan and was asleep by 10pm. Besides waking up in the middle of the night to secure the vestibule, it was a very restful sleep.
Septemeber 29 2024
We were up and packed by 9am. By our estimation, we’d be back to Seattle by noon. But we wanted to check out a bakery in town before leaving back over the pass. Apparently the baguettes from the bakery in the country store were revelatory. While it didn’t look revelatory, but it did seem like the other pastries might be top notch, especially if you were coming off of the PCT.
It was sunny and an almost perfect mid-60 degree day. We hopped in the car and headed back to Seattle. We listened to some Mark Normand, Beatles and Kooks on the way back. I was looking forward to resting since I was a little low on energy from fasting. It would be nice to lay down and reflect on the fun trip before hitting chill yoga at 4:30.
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