Liberty Bell object report - BAD

[guest]

Several jumpers made an exploratory trip to the East Face of Liberty Bell last weekend, in Northern Washington State. Exit points were reviewed and the object was thoroughly examined with an eye towards jumpability.

The object does not have safe exit points. It is not jumpable. There are tempting exit points, which if jumped are either guaranteed death or enormously high chance of death. There are two potential static line exit points that are highly risky and, given the approach to the object and objective dangers of same, do not seem at all worth the trip.

One of the jumpers exited blind from the most promising exit point, slider up. We had been told the cliff was "1000 feet and very steep" and we were prepared for solid delays and potential wingsuit jumps. By the time this scenario was proved false, a repack to slider down was not feasible due to steep terrain and moderate winds.

This exit point, jumped blind, lead into a series of ledges and dihedrals that bottomed out in approx. 250 feet in a large and impossible-to-clear ledge system. The jumper deployed a 38 inch pilot chute less than 1 second into the jump after clearing the bulge on exit and recognizing that certain death waited 250 feet below. Despite this dangerous deployment, an on heading opening materialized and the jumper cleared the bottom ledges by less than 15 feet.

During freefall the jumper was at times less than 5 feet from the wall on three sides. The path of descent was, after post-jump review of the face, the ONLY path that was "clear" for 250 feet and thus had a survivability percentage of greater than 0%.

A second jumper was preparing to exit from 20 feet left of the first jumper, and had begun exit countdown. A frantic radio call on barely-working 2-way radios stopped this jump after video review by the first jumper showed a prominent ledge/arete less than 150 feet below the second jumper. Impact would have occurred long before canopy pressurization.

The second jumper free soloed out from the exit point after receiving this lifesaving radio transmission from jumper #1, who was unable to get confirmation that the transmission was received. Climbing without protection up to 5.10c/d on loose, exfoliating rock and steep friction pitches awaited the second jumper after the aborted exit.

More than three hours later, the second jumper limped back into the parking lot. The first jumper has assumed the worst and spent the afternoon searching the cliff face and talus below for body parts, and calling to determine if the second jumper was critically injured and trapped on one of the ledges.

This was a harrowing experience, very much so. This object, while seemingly attractive, is a death trap. Again, there is NO good exit point. The approach pitches to the potential exit points require a climber who is able to lead 5.10+ X in an alpine setting. Retreat is extremely dangerous absent these climbing skills or twin 60 meter ropes and ample gear to set rappels down the main face.

I (jumper #2) have heard many jumpers wonder about Liberty Bell, the so-called "steepest big wall in the North Cascades." Please, if you are thinking of jumping this object. . . DON'T. It is a nice apline climb (we soloed 5 pitches of 5.7 granite to summit), and a beautiful setting. It is black death to jump.

I hope to never hear of a jumper going in on this thing. We came as close as possible to death and only pure, blind, random luck saved both of us from painful bounces. Jumper one is a highly experiened jumper with many close calls; this jump now falls second on his "near death" list, behind only another absolutely random-luck near-death experience.

Tell your friends. Drill this into your mind. Liberty Bell is not a good jump. If it were super, I'd be glad to let people know. It is not; the likelihood of someone dying up there is enormous, and it is a terribly tempting object. The blind exit points LOOK promising. None of them are.

Be safe. Don't go in, at least not on this underhung deathtrap.

Peace,

[name not released for obvious reasons]

[guest]

TVH - ummmmmmm, this isn't that thing you're talking about, right?

[squirrel]

I've checked out the Liberty Bell Object here on the East Coast as well (in Philadelphia). DEFINATELY not jumpable, it's severly underhung, only 6' til impact, and there's a national park ranger posted less than 10' from the exit point.

If you're going to see it, leave the rigs at home.......

[Yuri]

Yo !

>This exit point, jumped blind, lead into a series of ledges and dihedrals that bottomed out in approx. 250 feet in a large and impossible-to-clear ledge system.

Sounds like this may be a reasonable wingsuit exit point, depending on the total height to the landing area ;-) I have recently flown a suit from 3 different mountains that only have 5..6 sec rock drop vertical/underhung exits (and another 3000..5000' of steep hills below, providing for some very long flights). What is the total altitude, LZ to the exit point ?

Now, after 2 weeks spent on a bunch of new and sometimes scary walls, i can't help but ask: what makes an experienced base jumper to exit blind ??? ;-) Is there a specific reason that a rope and/or rock drops were unavailable ?

bsbd!

Yuri.

[monkeylala]

Sorry to resurrect this dead thread from long ago, but the internet is such a wonderful thing. I just happened upon this site, very indirectly and then thought about a couple of BASE jumpers I'd come across several years ago. A quick search, and looky, looky. Assuming not many people jump this, based on your report, I bet we saw you two that day. We were climbing (using a rope) when we saw two yahoos in jeans and backpacks soloing up this route. That is pretty humbling, and then to find out they're going to jump off the other side... I think y'all (BASE jumpers) are crazy. Well, crazy in a good, but still very scary way.
To me it seemed the big guy had either not as many brain cells or better rock climbing skills than the skinny Aussie dude. Maybe he was a Brit, it's been so long all I remember was he talked like a foreigner.
Anyhow, glad to hear you two made it out of there alive. I'd always wondered what happened. I'm surprised at your assessment, given that it goes aid for quite a few pitches. I think that'd be your best bet at assessing the jumpability, do one of the aid routes. Then again, what do I know, I think y'all are nuts ;)

[get_real]

No one makes it out alive.
Yuri has a good point, why make a blind jump?
The skinny one checked out late last year due to stupidity.
The fat stupid one is in a very queer state of mind.