Page 12 - 2009 AMA Summer

£100
ARTICLE Calling
from the Cascades....
“It looks like it gets a little thin here Joe”
wild and fast from one to the next, top step
long climbing trip to sample the best that I called down, as I tried to figure out
to clip, then on... easy aid... “2 meters Joe”,
Washington had to offer.
how to aid through the next section
now a quick high step onto a good ledge...
where the crack shallowed and petered out.
“I’m at the belay”.
For those of you who have never ventured Although the first three pitches of Liberty Bell
into the Pacific North West there is a wealth Crack are normally aided, we’d not really
Third pitch down and most of the aid done
of climbing opportunities awaiting you. There come prepared for it. We had hoped to
on Liberty Bell Crack, one of the 50 climbs
are routes to satisfy every taste, and I sus- ‘make do’ with minimal gear and travel faster
listed in Steve Roper and Alan Stecks’
pect that a winter adventure would be every on the easier free section above. The pitches
Classic Climbs of North America.
bit as good if not better than our summer
go at C3 (C2 Yosemite Aid!), but the sections are short enough to concentrate the mind without turning it into retrospective enjoy- ment.
I could see a perfect hook placement that would get me through to the next section, but had no hooks. I tried an open karabin- er, no joy, I even tried the hook on the end of my nut key, but something told me to try harder to find a better way. Thank God for brass offsets.
“Ok I’ve got a good piece now” Good nut in place, into free climbing, a few moves then onto the bolt ladder... 4 quick bolts swinging
We were on Liberty Bell crack at the end of a long month of work; finally getting to climb something for ourselves, to our own tempo and rhythm. It seemed somehow fitting that our trip should finish in the same area that it had started. High on the crest of the beauti- ful North Cascades National Park in Washington State.
Whist in the Yosemite Valley the previous year several climbing friends had inspired me with tales of their adventures further north in the Cascades, and it wasn’t long before I designed an expedition to take four young climbers and two instructors on a month
one. We used the Nelson and Potterfield Selected Climbs in the Cascades Volume 1 and 2 to help guide us through the area. Although their route timings are a little sus- pect there is a wealth of great information and they were generally bang on about the quality of the various routes we climbed.
There are routes on isolated glaciated volca- noes with views across the desert to the east and the ocean to the west. From easy snow plods through to challenging and committing mixed routes and there is Granite climbing at least the equal of the High Sierra further south in California. In addition to this there is the entire North Cascades mountain range. It
10 ARMY MOUNTAINEER