June 01, 2009.

With the promising forecast and the overdue need to call in to work for a “sickie”, Alex K. and I opted to tack another day on to the class outing at Liberty Bell and attempt Kangaroo Temple. Climbing at Liberty Bell on Saturday and Sunday offered occasional tempting views of the west face of K.T. So, after parting ways with our entourage on Sunday afternoon, we headed into Winthrop for protein and liquid carbs. Surprisingly, we bumped into a group of students at the Winthrop Brewery who inadvertently took a wrong turn from the trailhead.
At camp on the Methow River, we were able to dry out Alex’s wet rock shoes around the fire while we continued to rehydrate and rack up for the next day. Upon further review of the Beckey Guide, we decided to climb either the 8-pitch S.W. Face or the 6 pitch N.W. Face (both descriptions somewhat confusing and intimidating), getting an early start so we kept our options open.
Well, best laid plans go astray and we managed to get on the trail at a “respectable” 7:30, affording us plenty of time for either option (or so we thought). High freezing levels yielded yet another miserable post hole approach through mush, avy debris, melting out talus, and laid over trees. Finally at the base of the west face we reviewed the routes in Beckey (yes, we carried it with us), and opted for the closer and shorter N.W. Face (fewer refs to pitons in rte. Description helped us make this decision). Finding the start of the route was a bit of head scratcher as we unsuccessfully searched for the “flat table-sized rock” and “rock tongue”.
Alex, our up-and-coming rock “hard man” took the first (and ultimately most difficult) pitch, which involved traversing, down climbing a gully and a sketchy difficult to protectable runout slab with slimy wet patches due to the melting snow (5.7 my ass!). At the start of the second pitch, we again referred to “the bible”, scratched our heads, shrugged our shoulders. After some exploration, Alex’s hunch proved correct and I ascended a solid corner lie-back type pitch trending left to a second belay at a deep cave. After once again referencing the P.O.S guide book, Alex muscled a similar left-trending lead up to what we think ole Fred is calling “the dance floor”. Are we starting the fourth pitch, have we belayed too soon, or did we miss the dance floor? And how can it already be 4 o’clock? Clueless, I decide like the look of a blocky chimney to my right, so I opt for that and get through the final challenging moves to see that we are at the end of the difficult climbing. After belaying Alex up, we opt to swap leads once more and belay the south-exposed summit ridge and then walk the final 50 feet up to the summit having to walk through only a bit of snow.
After a bite and rest on the summit, we scramble down the north ridge silently praying that the two bolted “80-foot rappels” are not as obscure as the route description. Alas, this proves to be the case and we’re quickly down to the notch between K.T. and Little Finger. A scramble down and some traversing through snow takes us to our gear stash and we’re under way for another 1.5 hour post hole back (and one nice glissade) to the car.
Our record-setting time of 12 hours car-to-car (slowest ever?) was unceremoniously celebrated by removing our wet manky 3-day old garb, guzzling a gallon of water, and hitting the highway for the journey home. Not a car on the highway between Washington Pass and Newhalem made for quick travel. At home (10:30), I pulled “Red Fred” from the climbing library, removed pages 307-312, and ritualistically turned them into ashes on the barbeque.

CDD