Liberty Bell
This is a wonderfully pleasant climb at the low intermediate level. It is located some 3 hours from Seattle, and after a moderate, but steep 2.5 hour hike to the notch, the first pictch begins. The rock is solid and easily protected, with just enough exposure to keep things interesting. Liberty Bell is one of five peaks above the North Cascade Highway, and one of many climbing opportunities.
 A perfectly shaped mushoom grows among the gentle mosses along the path. |
 A brightly colored ptarmigan waddles amid the fallen branches, unworried of the intrusion we bring. |
 Across the road is Cutthroat Peak. |
 Accross the valley peaks of the interior Wenatchee Forest rise up from the golden tree line. |
 At the top of the notch,full of loose rock and under the steep cliffs of Liberty Bell and Concord Tower, pitch one begins. |
 One team is ahead of us and we wait our turn as they climb the crack that begins pitch number two. |
 The top of pitch two, we finally reach the sunshine and our fingers start to warm up. |
 With me belaying, Jon safely reaches the top of pitch two, wich was an interesting crack that was perhaps the most difficult portion of the climb. |
 Pitch three consisted of pleasant scrambling and an nice friction part that required some frictioning, and undercling and a fun layback. |
 Jon, at the top of pitch three. Behind him are Concord and Lexington Tower, and North and South Early Winter Spires. |
 Here I am at the top of pitch three. From here, we scramble around a corner on very easy terrain, to the friction slab that leads to the top. |
 Safely past the 12-foot friction slab, I look for a place to place protection, for the final push to the top. |
 A closer view. The friction on the granite is phenomenal. It looked much more difficult than it really was. |
 The top of Liberty Bell! What a great climb! |
 Jon at the summit, with the rest of the Liberty Bell grouping behind him. |
 Group photo: Jon, Chris, Jesse and me. Chris and Jesse were climbing behind Jon and I. |
 Another group shot, looking northwest. Horn Tower is in the background. |
 Across the way, another team tops out on Concord Tower after climbing a moderate route. This can easliy be done right after Liberty Bell as both climbs start at the notch. |
 A short downclimb toward the top of pitch three, then scramble southward down into a narrow tree-lined ledge, brings us to the rappel station. |
 I'm the first to rappel. Our team combines our ropes to enable us to rap in one long rappel to the notch. |
 At the end of the rap, the beginning of the climb, and the top of the notch. |
 Chris begins his rappel. When we pulled the ropes, one end became hung up on some protruding rocks. We had help from the team behind us so that we didn't need to climb back up to untangle them. |
 Jesse at the notch. |
 We all made it safely to the notch, but on the way down, we missed one gully and scrambled down one of the most loose and nastiest gullies I've been in. |
 As we descend, we enter the tree line where our footing finally becomes more solid. |