Ice Climb!

The weekend of July 9, 2016 was unseasonably cool. Micah and I decided it would be perfect conditions for a trip up to the Valley. I had been up the DNB several times, but never up the North Buttress. Micah had not been on trad lead in months so the North Buttress seemed like a logical choice. At 5.10a route looked like the DNB's mellower cousin... In reality the Direct North is really the DNB's grouchy, older-school sibling (if such a thing is possible). We got started climbing about 8AM. The route starts a good 15 min walk from the DNB start. The two routes are quite a bit different in character. North Buttress is rarely climbed, crosses a number of sketchy/loose sections, and has very little of the lower-angle slab (except for the very last pitch). Here's the base: I recall us using both the Reid and Sloan topos. Those are a bit vague/incorrect in spots. I later found the following topos ( source ). They are really accurate. Pitch 1 is

In the summer/fall of 1993 Frank Rodgers and I tried to climb a new route on the West Face of the Liberty Cap. We completed 4 pitches. So far the route goes free at 5.10 A0 R.  Topos:       If anyone ever goes up there, it would be great if they could knock in another bolt or two on the second pitch. No need for another 5.10 R that nobody will climb.