[Matt]

Not-Liberty 5520
Party:  Stefan, Martin, Justus, Randy, Matt

We set off to climb Liberty.  Road 41 was completely blocked just 4.1 miles from the highway.  Multiple large trees down, and snow a couple feet deep.  That would have meant 6 miles of road walking.  We did not go there.

Stefan suggested going to Not-Liberty.  He even had four photocopies of maps for it all ready.  Odd coincidence, hmm?

We drove the Money Creek Road to 1800 feet, where the plowing had stopped at a bridge crossing a side stream.  From there we walked the road for a couple miles.  The goal was to ascend the left side of the stream that drains the basin west of Not-Liberty’s summit.  We overshot a little, but should have left the road circa 2600 feet, just a couple hundred yards past the double switchback.


The route climbs left of the stream until past a waterfall, then circa 3600 goes into the gully, and climbs right of the stream to the wider basin circa 4200.  Terrain in the woods was steep but workable, still mostly snow-covered.  Once we moved into the gully, it was all snow-filled for straightforward step-kicking.

We continued up snow to the 5000-foot col at the head of the basin, then turned right up some steeper snow to the base of Not-Liberty’s summit block.  A brief rock scramble put us on top, 5520.


We stayed for over an hour watching the views and clouds.  The thrill of it all put some people to sleep.


Summit views:


The descent was fast down the snow to the road, with some good glissades in the basin, then tedious walking back down the road.  Walking along some sections of the creek-side road, it seemed that there were small waterfalls of side streams cascading into the creek almost every hundred feet.


Holiday traffic brought driving to a standstill through the Gold Bar area.

Statistics:  7 miles, 3800 gain, 6:30 hours.  Ascent 3:30, summit break 1:15, descent 1:45.

Special Statistic of the Day:
Time spent on roads (driving or hiking), 7.5 hrs
Time spent off roads, 4.5 hrs

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"Matt, you are truly full of it.  But you take great --- pics, in spite of that."  Scrooge

[puzzlr]

Good job on the stone soup.

Was the intended destination Liberty Mountain near Three Fingers? If so, where is this Road 46? I see Road 41 that leads to the Three Fingers trailhead, but no 46.

[wildernessed]

No Liberty, that sounds like an In-Justus. Looks like a dry good time with some views.

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I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent_Gandhi

[2drx]

Matt -

How much snow was there on the road by the time you got past the switchbacks?

BTW, I think the USGS Topo puts the switchbacks in the wrong place, they really are between the 2 watercourses to the east of where they currently show...

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www.2drx.com

[Matt]

[Stefan]

Thanks Matt for the pictures and report!

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Art is an adventure.

[Randy]

Great report Matt, thanks for putting it together. With the snow, our route up the mountain was actually pretty cool. Good times.

[JimK]

Nice report. As far as titles go I like "Not Liberty" or "Liberty And Justus" better than "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death". What with the near assassination on Lincoln and the dogs and guns this is getting to be a sceery place.

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Hiking Northwest

[meganerd]

Looking at your topo, it appears you passed dangerously close to Crosby's Boner in your pursuit, following the stream of Money to Justus and Non-Liberty.

-1 maturity points for me...

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CLIMB MOUNTAINS FOR SATAN

[Martin S]

Here's our GPS track from walking that section of road.  The GPS map puts the road in the same place as the topo map, but the actual track (the green line) shows the switchback to be farther east.  So the map is wrong.
And here are a few other random shots from Crosby:

[Beave]

Excellent trip guys. I guess I better start asking what the Backup Plan is. I lost interest in Liberty but have been bloodthirsty for Crosby for awhile.

I was inspired enough by your report to take my last day off and hike up there to check things out. I hiked the road to the switchbacks in question and beyond. Just before the switchbacks, your guys' boot tracks had melted out enough to make following them difficult. I darted into the woods for a couple minutes before deciding that I may be in a bit over my head, at least from a solo perspective. I may have continued if I had a cell signal, but as it was, it didn't really "feel" smart to continue. So I slogged the road back and had lunch at a particularly scenic section of rapids.

Looks like I will need to drum up support for a second attack on Crosby. The conditions looked great.

Out of curiousity, did you guys see or go beyond this pond on the N side of the road, after the switchbacks? 

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Craig
http://www.flickr.com/photos/climbercraig66/sets/

[Justus S.]

This was a excellent trip aside from the long time spent on the road and even that wasn't too painful. Even though Liberty didn't come together Crosby was one I have wanted to do for awhile. The route was nice for a peak I thought might be a bit more difficult.

[Justus S.]

Beave, wish you had come. I don't remember seeing that pond. Were you at the pond below Lake Elizabeth? As Matt said, we went a bit too far on the way up. What you want to do is hike about one third of a mile past the switchbacks. If you begin heading up where there are a bunch of deciduous trees (alders?) and a pit of some sorts (on the north side of the road) this should get you on the right track.

[Matt]

Justus & Martin, nice shots from both of you of people along the route.

For those who've inquired, the route seems to be in excellent condition right now.  The snow makes for extra road walking, but makes travel uphill and upstream much easier.

As Justus said, I remember an area of more widely spaced deciduous trees at the spot on the road where we came down.  We were some distance west of the stream, so you have to keep angling right as you go up.

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"Matt, you are truly full of it.  But you take great --- pics, in spite of that."  Scrooge

[Layback]

Nice pics guys.  Had a feeling the road would be a problem but it looks like you found a worthy objective nonetheless.  Cloud formations in the late afternoon on Monday were pretty cool, no?