After the grungy climb of Spider Mountain, Jim and I were happy to be teaming up with George to do some alpine crag climbing at Washington Pass. Alpine crag climbing has the appeal of being in the mountains but you get to climb fairly solid rock. Unlike Spider where everything you touched came off in your hand.
We hooked up with George at the Lone Fir campground just outside of Mazama on Tuesday night. With the clear skies, it was going to be a cold night which meant an even colder morning. We needed an early start since we were hoping to climb both Concord and Lexington Tower in the Liberty Bell Massif. We set a 5:30am alarm. It feels so wrong to get up in the dark.
I started up the Blue Lake trailhead in everything except my down jacket. Good thing the approach is 3 miles and 2000 feet of gain. It was the only thing that kept us warm.
When we broke out of the trees into the basin below Liberty Bell, the sun was shining down on us and the mountain towers were in our face. Wholly Crap, they were steep.
The climbing routes for both Concord and Lexington Towers are from the col between the two. We planned to climb Concord first because the climb was on the south wall which would be in the sunshine.
The climbing book said the approach was up a dirt, loose gully. Jim and I actually thought it was quite pleasant. I guess it is all in your perspective.
When we reached the col between the two towers, we all reached for our down jackets. This col has not seen the sun in months. While we stood in the cold, we all stared at the vertical rock wall. Where the heck was the class 5.6 route?
After reading the route beta several times and surveying the rock wall, there was only one possible climbing option. The route looked way harder than 5.6 from the col. Once we got to the start, the route laid back and looked a lot more doable.
Before long George was heading up the rock…
… while Jim was trying to sneak into the sunshine.
As George neared the crest of the ridge, I began to get ready to climb.
The climbing was so fun. The rock was solid and clean. I had the most difficult time with the class 5.0 ramp. It was a “V” shaped ramped. With every step, my foot got stuck in the base of the “V”. The top of the pitch was a hand traverse where your feet were smeared on the face.
Soon all three of us were standing at the belay station. While the guys exchanged gear …
… I enjoyed the view.
The next pitch was an easy class 5.0 ridge run to the shark fin. The shark fin was said to be exposed and incredible. It did not disappoint.
The fin ran up one side of the ridge and then down the other requiring me to do a backwards au cheval. The guys both downclimbed the other side of the fin. The exposure was 300 feet down on both sides. I was way more comfortable sitting on the ridge and pushing myself along with my hands.
After the excitement of the shark fin, we had one last short pitch to the summit.
The final 15 feet were around the right side of the tower so we could not see George but we could hear him grunting with every move. When I rounded the corner, I could see a fin of rock that you had to grab on to and pull yourself up. After about 3 minutes of encouragement from George, I grabbed on and started to pull myself up. I arrived the summit on my stomach, grunting and groaning.
At this point, we realized we did not have time to do Lexington Tower today so we agree to just sit back and enjoy the summit.
The skies were so blue. The air was so clear.
After relaxing on the summit for over 30 minutes, we decided it was time to set up the rappel. The book said it was two single rope rappels. Jim was leading the rappel down the vertical face. The start required you to swing out over the vertical face. My stomach was in my throat. I really thought George was going to have to push me off the summit. I was not swinging out there. Frankly, I am way more comfortable in a dirty, loose gully.
Our first rappel ended on a ledge 6 inches by 3 feet. Without the rope stretch, we would not have reached the ledge. Jim and I were way out of our comfort zone. George was totally at home.
The second rappel started with a three foot over hang. You had to be really careful not to spin. George handled the over hang like a pro.
We were all happy to come back tomorrow for Lexington Tower. For now, we were off to Mazama for pizza and beer.
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