Finding Liberty

"As in any alpine region, the weather is changeable, protection questionable, route-finding bewildering, rockfall frequent and descents tedious. In short, it's everything you could ever ask for."    — from the Canadian Alpine Journal, 1993.

 
Liberty Ridge, Mt. Rainier, 4-4-06 to 4-10-06

I had been looking for a winter climb to test me when a buddy brought up Liberty Ridge on Rainier. I knew the name having heard about it in the news from time to time. My first thought was - people die out there! Liberty Ridge is notorious for falling rock, ice and sometimes avalanches that sweep everything and everyone in their way off the mountain. Despite the risks this climb has been labeled one of the 50 classic climbs in the US. Liberty Ridge has gained a fair amount of notoriety through the years by claiming the lives of many climbers over the years. According to Dave Hahn, an RMI guide on Rainier with 20+ years of experience, Liberty Ridge is “big, rocky, loose, icy and steep. Things fall down out there and things get killed.”  It didn't take me long to book my airline tickets.

I did some more reading and figured out fewer people climb Liberty every year than Mt. Everest. I also found out in the last three years over a half dozen people had died up there. This increased my trepidations about the climb but it also increased its “grin factor.” According to “Gator”, the lead climbing ranger for Rainier, he can’t recall a successful climb of Liberty Ridge so early in the season in over 17 years. We chose April 4th for our date to start our climb as it coincided with my spring break. One heck of a way to spend my vacation when my coworkers were headed to the beaches. Early April is considered a "pre-season" climb. I think my definition of pre-season would be, “lots of knee and thigh deep snow, cold temps and no-one else on the mountain with you.” Apparently the "sane" climbers wait a couple of months to let the snow melt down and for some one to find and mark their way though the heavily crevassed Carbon Glacier.

I am going to be climbing with Isaac Will and Neal Mueller.  Isaac is a good friend of mine who I met when he started coming in to climb at the local REI that I work at. He loves life and its challenges, always being up for the next big adventure. Over the last few years we have developed a strong trust in each other. Isaac introduced me to Neal last summer just after Neal had gotten back from his successful unguided summit of Everest. Neal is a big, strong and ambitious climber. His ambitions have led him to climb the highest summit on every continent in the last four years and become one of the younger “7 Summitters”. He has accomplished more in the last four years than most climbers will in a life time. I am more of a technical climber. I started climbing rock 14 years ago and over the years have added in just about every climbing discipline except aid climbing. In the last four+ years I have gotten into ice climbing which has become my new addiction. I have also taken to summitting 14ers, peaks over 14 thousand feet, and have hiked over a dozen in the last few years. I have been keen to bring my technical climbing skills to a big cold mountain. Liberty Ridge would give me the opportunity to combine many of my climbing skills, traditional rock climbing and ice climbing, with summitting a new 14er.

It is now mid March and the Ridge is consuming my mind, causing me to loose sleep.  I have fallen behind in my workouts for the trip (causing even more lost sleep).  During what was supposed to be a springboard to my training, I pick up a nasty leg injury while ice climbing in Ouray, Colorado.  Ouray is a story in itself, but let’s just admit that, “yes, I was climbing after dark and yes, I did have my headlamp off while climbing WI...”  I never did get the plate number on the truck (read, big chuck of ice) that hit me, but it did a number on my lower leg.

Back to March.  I am trying to catch up on my training by carrying 60+ lbs of rope, climbing gear and water up and down the 12 floors of my condo building in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.  I’m getting results.  I have never needed to lose weight, but now I see my waist slim down a bit and my weight go from 157 to 153.  Actually, I should be eating more because I’ll lose a lot more before the Rainer climb is over but I am enjoying see my abs come in for the first time in years.

Gear sorting day arrives.  We meet at Neal's house to sort and weigh, sort and weigh, sort… Ultimately I decide to leave my MP3 player and digital camera behind to save weight.  Earplugs will be my “luxury item.”  Being the smallest of the three climbers, I have spent a fair amount of money and time acquiring the lightest weight gear possible.  Isaac and Neal approved my use of a 3600 cubic inch pack, but it has to be perfectly packed to accommodate everything needed for the trip.  Lightweight is great, but tight packing will have a consequence – extra time packing when breaking camp.  Gear day behind us, I decide my preparations are lagging and book a flight to Denver for the five days just prior to the Rainier climb.  I hang with friends and head out to the mountains a few times to jumpstart my acclimatization and gain strength.  Mission accomplished, I fly back to MN on April 3.