Trip Date: October 1, 2010

Liberty Bell Mountain Day Climb

Liberty Bowl
Liberty–Concord Notch
Liberty Bell Mountain (7720′+)

Trip Report Summary

Region: Northeastern Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Washington Pass Mountains

Area: North Cascades Scenic Highway Corridor

Starting & Ending Point: Blue Lake Trailhead on Highway 20 (Elev. 5400 feet)

Way Points: Liberty Bowl & Liberty–Concord Notch (trail hike & rock scramble)

Summit: Liberty Bell Mountain (rock climb via Southwest Face [Beckey Route])

Approximate Stats: 5 miles traveled; 2400 feet gained & lost; 6.5 hours up; 3.1 hours down.

Full Trip Report

I teamed up with Eileen and Fay last Friday to tackle Liberty Bell Mountain in the Washington Pass area. Individually, Fay and I had been wanting to climb this famous granitic monolith for…oh, I don’t know…maybe 30 or 35 years. Eileen’s desires were much shorter-lived but no less emphatic. It all came together on this impeccable October day.

We left the Blue Lake Trailhead in cool, clear weather and made our way up to the Liberty–Concord notch (2.1 hours from car). As per plan, nobody else was on the route ahead, what with this being a weekday. Later, a party of three came behind us, but we scarcely saw or heard them.

Starting at noon, we geared up and roped up and spent the next 4 hours savoring the ultra-classic Southwest Face (Beckey Route). It was everything we’d hoped for: solid rock, interesting route features, minor navigational challenges, dramatic exposure, moderately difficult moves interspersed with easier segments.

There were ribs, faces, chimneys, friction slabs, finger traverses, dihedrals, laybacks, bulges, chockstones, and ledges. All in all, we were having so much fun, the summit almost seemed to come too quickly (6.6 hours from car).

The freshly scrubbed atmosphere and oblique sun rays made for splendid summit views. We spent nearly an hour on the comfy granite sofas and chairs.

Only the fear of a headlamp descent got us motivated to leave. We made one single-rope rappel down the highest pitch, followed by one double-rope rappel over the vertical south face (thankfully, there were two new-ish bolt anchors for this second one), then finished with a short scramble back to the Liberty-Concord notch.

A 2000-foot descent on scree, talus, sand, and trail got us to the trailhead shortly after dark (3.1 hours from summit). To cap off a wonderful day, we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner and dessert at the Freestone Inn near Mazama.

Photo Gallery

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