[Stefan]

Had a fun time with the great weather for Liberty Mtn. with Matt B., and Martin S. We left the end of the road just on the southside of Green Mountain up the Mountain Loop Highway. (I think 4111) where it is bermed and full of clay pigeons. The abandoned road surprised us—it was well maintained! It is a trail…in fact it is highly mountain bikeable all the way to the cutoff by Canyon Lake. At the cutoff from Canyon Lake the road becomes very very brushy with interspersed cuttings of trees. Weird. Anyway, we made it to the hairpin at point 2826 and then proceeded to go westerly on a downsloping way. I will spare you the details…but don’t go that way. The brush suckage is worse if you basically go straight downhill and then over to Canyon Creek at where the creek makes a sharp turn to the north. After crossing the other fork of the creek it was up to the west ridge of Liberty. The brush does get tough in here. We tried coming down a slightly different way, but the brush suckage was the same. Once we reached the ridgeline, it was nice. For a little while. Then back to some brush suckage. Eventually the brush departed and the snow became dominant at around 4000 feet. The ridgeline flattens out for a tiny section and then we went up for about 50 feet before we went to the south face side because the ridge started to steepen. The south facing side had quite a bit of snow which we used to ascend to the base of the summit rock. The summit rock has a narrowing slippery little gully which is a short 4 class section with a very sketchy slings to hold on to. We had a rope and that was used to ascend this section by also use of “rabbit hole” move under a tree. The summit was great! I even brought out a summit treat – a Dungeness crab! Mmmmmm gottta love those crabs! After a good while on the top we used the rope to descend through the rabbit hole and reversed course back to the cars. On the way out, we met some “good ol boys” who had biked into Canyon Lake for some fishing but were unlucky. Another interesting thing happened. When we were about to leave an officer pulled up from the sheriff’s office. He was checking to see if there was any shooting going on. Apparently he is contracted with the Forest Service for patrolling this whole area for any type of illegal activity. It is illegal to shoot from Forest Service roads he informed us, but we informed him we were just mountain climbing! Anyway, it was good to see a Law Enforcement Officer out there, where I thought none existed.

1 label

[Hulksmash]

[Magellan]

I would really like to hear the details.

[Redwic]

[Eric]

Great work. Did you guys need a rope at all?

[iron]

nice

[Matt]

Placeholder for Matt's photos (and more details) We used a rope briefly about 100 feet below the summit, where a rock gully was damp and slippery.

[beaudaddy]

Nice You Guys! Liberty is such a beautiful mountain. Way to go and thanks for sharing! Did you guys bring loppers and trim the way? Being serious though, did you take any pictures of Canyon Lake or Canyon Creek? I know it wouldn't be needed as a peakbagging trip, but I think getting into Canyon Lake to do some fishing, camp and head for the summit bid early the next morning would maybe be kinda sweet. Especially if it was midweek and the good ol boys were out logging or whatver good ol boys do during the work week... Anyways, Thanks again and I like that picture looking down the ridgeline toward Whitehorse... I would love to spend a couple days along that ridge.

[Matt]

Beaudaddy, We did that ridgeline a few years ago. Start from the end of the Squire Creek Road (the old end, where the trailhead is, not the washout). Camped on the ridge crest, did Salish, Ohio, Buckeye & Poptart tower, then the next day went to Bullon. Best early in the season so you can hike up snow to the ridge, otherwise probably much brush.