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Freedom in Liberty Chute on Mt Dana | Liberty Chute, Dana Plateau, Tioga Pass, Yosemite, CA United States | 06/08/09, by Dark Star

One of the most classic areas for steep, exposed, spring skiing on California's Eastside is the Dana Plateau. Every year riders wait patiently for the road up to Tioga Pass to open. At 9,943 feet options circle you in every direction. There are the less intense backcountry objectives like Mt. Gaylor, False White, and the Bread Loaves, but most skiers and riders are looking to use the pass to access Mt. Dana and the Plateau. Time it right and you can skin from the pass, drop one of the many epic couloirs or chutes off Mt. Dana, do a quick boot pack up to the Plateau, and then chose from several epic descents. Just dropping Mt. Dana is 1-2k vertical while the Plateau is an added 4 grand, all for only hiking a few thousand feet!
The concentration of classic lines accessible from Tioga Pass is truly remarkable. Each year I try to ski something new, and each year I leave with a new goal for next season.  A couple of weeks back the ingredients came together to get into a line that's as unique and aesthetic as anything you can find in the lower 48. It's called the Liberty chute because, well, it looks exactly like the Statue of Liberty. The thing about this line is it's super difficult to get in prime conditions, and there is a lot of ingredients that must come together to get this one done safely.

Things looked good a couple of week's back-weather was clear, the pass was open, snow was good, and I had two solid partners signed up in Rusty and Ming. Both partners were competent, but as we awoke to the wind blowing our sleeping bags around, we were all asking, "I thought there was supposed to be no wind?"

Adding to the adventure, the gate to the pass was closed, and even though we knew it was supposed to open that morning, we were under a strict timeframe.  The Liberty chute faces east and gets sun early, which is good, so long as you're up there early. Also, the line has a mandatory rappel in, with a ridiculous amount of exposure from a hanging cornice that slowly melts and threatens to drop into the chute at any moment. This also creates a runnel in the 45 degree arm of the chute, so if possible, you want to be on this one before all that happens.

The gate wasn't open at 8 am for us, so we started wondering if our mission was about to turn into a sandbag. We contemplated other things to ski, but luckily we took it upon ourselves to go to the Caltrans office and ask about the status of the gate opening. "Soon" we were told, which really didn't help us all that much because the clock was ticking, and once Liberty goes into the shade, it gets firm and extremely unpleasant to ride.

We were about to bail, but decided to try one more time with Caltrans to get an exact opening time. To our surprise, after explaining as nicely as we could, we were leaving if the gate wasn't opening in the next few minutes, the Caltrans guy said, "See you up there in a minute".

Game On!

Stoked, we raced up to the gate and met with 10 others, all waiting and wondering why the gate was still closed at 9 am on a totally bluebird perfect spring day. When the gate finally opened, the stoke factor was soooo high. It all seemed like everything was happening for a reason and we just pointed ourselves to the pass, geared up, and found ourselves on top of Liberty...just as it was going into the shade. 

A series of interesting events followed, including more time than we thought to scope, set the anchor, crazy snow funneled flutes plastered to the rock walls of the arm which normally aren't there, and then our most interesting finding; our rope was too short.

Still not wanting to bag on our mission, even though the clock was ticking, Ming lowered me in on belay, as I kicked steps and cleared extra snow with my ax. Rusty was next, his third day on skis in the last 2 years! By then I had skied through the upper arm of the chute that was now punchy and somewhat treacherous, and left my two safe spots because they quite frankly were not so safe.

I bailed from my last safe spot as a patch of snow/ice ripped off the wall and hit me.  Thankfully it wasn't too big, but I bailed and skied the life fully to relax and actually get to the safest spot I could. Then came Ming. Now Ming had to rappel into the line, use my steps and down-climb to a "safe" spot, pull the rope, put on his board, and ride the line out. He took a while, obviously, but got it done and was so excited you could feel it as he rode to Rusty and I.

As we all rode to the bottom and hiked out, smiles and joyous yelps abound, Rusty, Ming and I were so unbelievably stoked. Sitting at the road after Rusty hitched a ride up to the pass to get the car, it was one of those days that feels more like a week-waking up to wind, the gate, Caltrans, our rope, it all seemed surreal. But we got it done, and looking back at the Plateau now, with so many classic lines like Ripper and Third Pillar, I'll never forget the feeling of finding our freedom through the Liberty Chute this May.