Descending the South Arete route

All Locations > Washington > Northwest Region > Hwy 20 & N Casc… > N Cascades > Washington Pass > Liberty Bell Group > S Early Winters… > Southwest Rib (5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c)

Descending the South Arete route

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A quick paws on the Bear Hug Pitch.

Cool shot of Climbers on (what I think was the SW rib)!

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Joshua Thompson

Aug 21, 2020

“Descending the South Arete route”

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Bear Hug, 4th pitch

The route. Bear-hug pitch visible, as well as the nice white crack first pitch.

Easy downclimb to gully avoiding the "bunny ears" rap (green circle). Going on the gully side of the tree makes for less rope drag. I put one piece at the top of the gully and ran out the final wide crack to belay from the summit.

A quick paws on the Bear Hug Pitch.

Descending the South Arete route

Cool shot of Climbers on (what I think was the SW rib)!

Unknown climber on SW Rib as seen from the S Arete.

The 10b finger crack variation

Looking up the pitch 3 variation - a 10b finger crack. It's good.

Climbers topping out on Aug. 13, 2020. Taken from top of NEWS.

The Bear Hug pitch

Down Climbing the South Arete...

Shayd cali flexing

Heading up the couloir and left to the start of the left-leaning white crack. There are a few options on the traverse left (high or low).

Unknown climber on SW Rib as seen from the S Arete.

Top of the bear hug on pitch 4

One of my favorite routes in the pass

2nd Pitch, super fun crack

Justin high on the route.

Pitch four taken from directly about the 10b finger crack variation

Beargugs cracks.

Part way up 4th pitch. After 3 tries, I finally found the route. At the start, head directly right along the edge then up. This photo shows the fun run out section :)

Looking down mid crack on the 2nd pitch. Very enjoyable

Last bit of the wavy crack (P2) is this wide.

Route overlay for the 10b finger crack variation on pitch 3. Traverse right of the tree, then move directly up the vertical finger crack to meet the belay at the base of the nervous nelly pitch.

Start of the aretes (P6), single bolt marked.

pitch 1

top of the slab pitch

bear hug.. kinda

Avoiding the rabbit ears is way easier than some descriptions make it out to be. Just mosey up p7 (what supertopo describes as pitch 8) and follow the rope line in this photo.

#4 fits great on the right side of the bear hug towards the start.

Lower portion of Nervous Nelly, so says the comments. Notice position relative to bear hug cracks above and left.

Nick walking up some 5.6 section.