Liberty Linkem

Last week Jens Holsten and I climbed ‘Liberty Crack’ and ‘Thin Red Line’ in a long day, two beautiful routes on the east face of Liberty Bell.

Jens’ original (and lofty) goal was to link the wall’s three big lines, ‘Liberty Crack’, ‘Thin Red Line’ and the ‘Independence Route’.  Together or with other partners we had travelled almost all of this ground at least once in the years past, the few exceptions being the first three pitches of Liberty Crack and the original pendulum pitch on TRL.

Three years ago I climbed the face for my first time via the ‘Independence Route’.  Jens had already scoped out the route’s difficulties and recruited me for an attempt at a free ascent.  After one more day of work sussing the protection we managed to free the route.  Last year we were both back on the face, this time with different partners.  Jens was trying ‘Freedom or Death’ with our friend Jessica Campbell, a variation to Liberty Crack that circumvents that routes crux roof and unprotected slab.  Almost within fist bumping range, Sol Wertkin and I worked out the free climbing on ‘Thin Red Line’.  Jens had freed TRL the year before with Drew Schick and we all owe a debt of thanks to Mikey Schaefer for establishing the stellar variation that allows the route to go.

After a winter of bouldering I was a little skeptical of my ability to speed climb off the couch but it seemed worth a try and the commitment level was relatively low.  If the first route didn’t go well we could always bail back to the car, a mere fifteen minute jog down the trail.  The real wild card in the project was descending back to the base, the traditional method is to go down the ‘Beckey Route’ and then out the Blue Lakes Trail.  This would add a lot of travel time in between routes so we decided the better option was to rappel down ‘Liberty Crack’, a slightly daunting task as we both know the inherent danger and unpredictability of a long rappel.

After a long week of work we caravanned the three hours to Washington Pass and made a leisurely hike to the base, filling up water bottles below the talus field and stashing our climbing gear just below the face.  At the parking we ran into Eric and Emiko, two Seattle climbers gunning for Liberty Crack the next day.  We resisted the urge to beg them for the small stoppers that we had forgotten back in Leavenworth, assuming we could pull it off without them…

Back at the bivouac we were pleasantly surprised to run into our friends Sol, Blake and Scott.  They shared stories, pancakes and the missing stoppers that would prove to be crucial the next day.  Waking at a typically absurd hour Jens and I sipped coffee and made our way to the parking, where the motivated Seattleites had already left their truck.  Unencumbered by gear we raced to the base to find them already racked up, graciously they let us pass so we hurriedly donned our gear and scrambled up the snow to the first route of the day.

Four and a half hours later we tagged the summit and turned right back around to where we had left the ropes.  The first rappel misson went surprisingly smooth, not a single stuck rope slowed us down as we descended back to our stash of water and food.

Somewhere near the top we realized that we’d be pretty satisfied with two routes in a day, we climbed relatively fast but knew that the triple link would require another level of knowledge and efficiency.

We gave ourselves a solid half hour of rest and then I grabbed the gear and headed back to the base.  A few pitches up TRL I started to slow down, my feet extremely unhappy with my choice of climbing shoes and aid climbing.  Despite some serious grumbling I kept at it and we topped out with just enough light to start the first rappel.

Our second go on the descent showed us how lucky we’d been the first time.  We each got the opportunity to re-climb the same pitch to free a stuck rope, the darkness and increasingly tangled lines adding to the difficulty and frustration.  Eventually we made it to the lower cleaner rappels where we sped up and hit the snow about fifteen and a half hours after starting the first route.  Jens freed the stubborn ropes from the moat while I scarfed a sandwich and stared blankly into space.  Thankful for the short distance to the car we stumbled down to a well deserved dinner of beer and chips and a long night of sleep.