Liberty Crack (finally!)
June 2015

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After scheming to visit Liberty Bell together a number of times over the years, Bryan finally got me out of my office ... and I him out of his.
Bryan and I met up in the wee hours one morning in June to sleep on the side of the road beneath the famous monolith of Liberty Bell. Later that morning we racked up...
and headed up.
Our plan, put off many times in the past, was to climb Liberty Crack by fixing the first three pitches (climbed as aid) that afternoon, and then finishing up the rest the second day. (Route Overlay and Photo by Steph Abegg, not me!)
We could reach the "starting" belay through technical climbing from the left of our intended line (small moat) or the right (harder).
Bryan got straight back into the swing of aiding, after a hiatus since our younger days.
Seconding the same pitch looks like this.
We swapped leads ...
and I embarked up and over the Lithuanian Lip.
Swap and repeat....
Following a lip can be a bit harder than leading it. Bryan is done.
Bryan took the third lead.
Time to head down for dinner.
We left ropes to reascend, which we did next morning.
After some strenuous jugging with our daypack (sorry, Bryan!) we were ready to free climb (well, only mostly free).
Beautiful corners and rock made for great memories.
I had only brought a rather dorky set of old gloves.
Some more challenges await near the top.
Let me know if this is you.
We scrambled the last pitch ...
... to celebrate on the summit.
We reversed our scramble and made two rappels.
From the notch, we packed up and walked down, just in time for dark.
The next morning, I got up early and very nearly missed my flight at YVR.
While Bryan slept a bit more ... and very nearly missed his later flight at SEA.