Plans for a visit to Couer d’Alene to see my sister and broinlaw triathlon the crap out of some fools last weekend fell through on account of Alaska Airlines and their lack of convenient flights out of Spokane, but Jeff was up for a little weekend roadtrip in search of some elevation, so we got up early Saturday morning, snagged some coffee from Stumptown, set some 80′s music playing on the iPod, and headed out to Mazama, WA.
Mazama turned out to be a tiny town consisting of a store and not much else, with a tidy little cragging area a mile up the road. We found some really great sport routes within sight of the parking lot, and we spent the afternoon soaking up the sun and ticking off some fun routes. I scored an onsight of a fun 10c and took a couple of decent falls off the top moves of a 10d, as well as cheating my way up a one-move-wonder overhung 11b. For his part, Jefe scored an onsight of a 12a, and don’t let him tell you otherwise. We topped the day off with some delicious beers and burgers in nearby Winthrop, and came back up to Mazama to put up the tent in the climber’s parking lot in true dirtbag style and pass out, well-fed and happy.
Jeff getting rowdy on some 5.12 at Mazama
We woke up early the next morning… well, not exactly an alpine start: we slept in just long enough so the Mazama store could open and serve us coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We then headed up to Washington pass to have a go at the Beckey route on Liberty Bell. I’m still a beginner when it comes to trad, so I’m blessed with good friends like Jeff who I can follow to the top of amazing mountains. After a reasonable approach hike through forests and meadows, and a less reasonable scramble up a long gully filled with loose scree, we found ourselves at the base of the route—unfortunately having arrived behind a party of six who were just getting underway. So we spent an hour hunkered down in the little warm clothing we had thought to bring after such hot weather the day before while the wind blew off the nearby snowfields and robbed us of our heat. We finally got underway, and aside from another long wait at the first belay, we made good progress up the three pitches, which went at 5.3, 5.6, and 5.6. The peak admitted some really aesthetic climbing on big granite crystals, fun stemming, and an undercling traverse of a big crack. After that we free’d up a short, safe 5.7 slab to the summit, which was blessedly free of other parties, and took in the amazing view of the North Cascades—Mt. Baker and Glacier Peak in the distance to the northwest, and the massive Early Winters Spires directly south of us.
Starting up…
Jeff leading the last 5.6 pitch
The summit, with the Early Winters Spires in the background
Something about being in places like that makes me happy and humbled to be alive on this planet.
The party behind us, a great trio of guys from up north of Bellingham, met up with us on the rap and offered to share ropes for the rappel, which we happily took them up on. Back on the ground, we picked our way down the gully and down the trail to the car, exhausted and stoked.
