Spam from Liberty Bell

Particulars
The Becky Route, Liberty Bell, North Cascades national Park, Washington

Difficulty: This is an easy jaunt: the approach is short and the climb consists of only four pitches of 5.6 on YDS scale.

Appeal: The North Cascades are breath-takingly beautiful. This climb is on excellent granite, is easy enough for the casual rock climber, and makes for a nice day. It seems to me that most North Cascades approaches belong to the excruciatingly difficult and harrowlingly strenuous category but here is one that does not. It is a great climb to sample this wonderful place without loosing 20,000 calories to do it. There are several other short climbs in this vicinity so if four pitches of granite is not enough for you, keep on climbing.
Spam
The first time I went to this place was with Drew and Edward. Drew and I swapped leads and trailed Edward. We arrived in the parking lot and hustled the two mile approach to try and get on the route in front of other climbers. This climb may not be listed in the 50 most crowded climbs book but is should be. We did our part to try and shoo away a curious mountain goat while we waited our turn at the base of the climb. Drew did the first pitch which is pretty easy then I got the second lead. I generally don’t like chimneys but this one is pretty cool. There is a tricky move or two but they protect nicely and I always felt safe. The next pitch fell to Drew again who encountered some route finding difficulty. “Go right, young man,” is my advice; however, if you are a real rock jock, try the left option. After this is the supposed 5.7 step. I don’t think it is 5.7 but if you want to feel like this route is more difficult, go ahead and call it a seven. A bit of rambling leads to the summit. We were all elated.

You can get down from the top of Liberty Bell with a little down climbing and one double rope rappel.

My subsequent visits to Liberty Bell have been due to failed climbs elsewhere in the North Cascades. There is no better way to retrieve a big road trip that takes a south turn than to get an easy – but not too easy – summit experience.
Logistics
This climb is written up in Selected Climbs in the North Cascades by Jim Nelson and Peter Potterfield. I’m pretty sure that Fred Becky wrote it up in one of his guides as well, after all, the route bears his name. If you can bear the tedium of reading Fred’s stuff, you go girl. If you head east after this climb, the town of Winchester is interesting and you will certainly be able to find some food and a beer somewhere in this tourist magnet.