North Early Winter Spire, Labor Pains (III 5.11a), Over Exposure and the Patriot cracks

 Andy Dahlen Following spiltters at the end of the first pitch of Labor Pains (III 5.11a)

  Andy Leading the corner at the start of pitch 2

 Andy just pulled the 5.11a roof and is now climbing spicy 5.10+ climbing above old pins and micro nuts

 Farther along the same pitch

 Andy starting the 4th and crux pitch. While the 4th pitch isn't sustained, it for sure has the hardest move, a burly 5.11 mantle above marginal gear and a slopping ledge

 On the Summit!!!!!!

 Climbing the sweet second pitch of Over Exposure (II 5.8) on Liberty Bell

 Replacing the south side anchors on Concord Tower

Andy Dahlein and I climbed Labor Pains (III 5.11a) on the West face of NEWS (North Early Winter Spire). It is an obscure and not commonly done route but we thought it was excellent, but a little burly. The route ascends from the start of the chock stone gully about 60ft before breaking left toward the base of some splitter hand cracks and an obvious corner system that start the second pitch. The first pitch many might choose to climb unropped and is 5.0. The second pitch climbs the corner (5.11a mostly very small but a #4 is nice) then traverses left on 5.9 face to a ledge. The third pitch climbs through some trees up a west faceesque splitter and pulls a roof on the left side with a bolt (5.11a). The climbing continues on steep face with small nuts, cams and fixed pins (5.10d) to a two bolt anchor.  The route's 4th pitch ascends up and right over a bulge (5.11a crux mantle) then up easier terrain under the huge obvious roof near the top and joins the west face.

 

After Labor Pains, Andy and I walked over and climbed the Over Exposure route (II 5.8) on Liberty Bell, then climbed the Patriot cracks (II 5.8) on Concord Tower and replaced the bolts on the summit when rapping the south face. I put the bolts on both sides in with Jason Broman the previous year and apparently the North side bolts where great but the south face bolts pulled terribly so we moved them to help the rope pull better. Patriot cracks starts on the same pitch as the normal North face and is 60ft of 5.6 to a ledge. The second Pitch starts nearly all the way to the far East end of the ledge climbed tricky, slightly awkward very featured cracks (5.8) in corners to a small ledge. Pitch 3 traverses left around a corner and ascends broken terrain (5.4) until it rejoins the normal North Face route for the final 15 feet.