Liberty Bell/Southwest Face

Party of 6 left TH on Friday 7/10 at 6am, summitted at 12:15, and back to cars at 3:30pm. Some climbers ahead of us slowed us down a little. There was some question whether we had found the correct starting ledge, but it seems to be the most obvious ledge sticking out from the gully about 20m below the notch. We all enjoyed Pitch-2 on the chimney because it was the "chimney that kept on chimneying", or just one little rock problem after another for good variety and good climbing. A couple other rope teams followed us, so it was a busy route for a Friday.

On the descent, we did three single raps, starting with the tree above the 5.6 slabby boulder. It's not right above the slab, but maybe another 10-15 meters up, and to the east. One full 30m rap from that tree drops you into the "tree filled gully", where you downclimb mostly to the right (west) to find the next rap station, which is a set of bolts on a steep wall above a sloping slab. One more single rap takes you to another set of bolts, and one more single rap to the notch and your packs. The goats had not nibbled on our packs, thankfully. Four climbers headed back to town, while the other two headed to Lone Fir campground to do two more days of climbing in the area.