Trip: Forbidden Peak - East Ridge Direct
Date: 8/23/2008
Trip Report:Nick and I headed to Boston Basin last weekend to climb Forbidden’s East Ridge Direct route. We camped at the trailhead on Friday night to get an early start the next morning. Turns out, we needed it!
We left the car at 5 am, and hiked the trail by headlamp for a while until we reached the beginning of the meadows, and views of our mountain.
Forbidden
Johannesburg at sunrise
We arrived in Boston Basin at 6:45 am. As we peered across the meadows full of marmots and flowers, I saw movement of a different sort on a nearby slope. About ˝ mile away, a huge bear was lumbering down the hill. It was a lighter brown than bears I have seen in the past, and a large hump over its shoulders indicated to me that this was no black bear! What a sight to see! The grizzly bear soon dropped behind a hill to where we could no longer see him, which made me somewhat nervous, but we continued on. As it turns out, we were able to watch the bear for most of the day once we were higher on the mountain. It seemed pretty content hanging out near the same stream all day.
Boston Basin
We continued past high camp and with some snow travel and moderate rock scrambling we were soon at the base of the climb, very excited about what was to come!
Scrambling towards Forbidden
We met another party at the solitary gendarme marking the start of the climb, and soon learned that conditions were not ideal. The ridge looked great, but our descent route, the Northeast Ledges, was covered in a dusting of powdery snow!
Not to be deterred, we decided that we would just have to downclimb the route. The other party however, worried about the extra time they would need (they were a group of three), decided to turn back.
I started off the climbing with a low fifth pitch around the first tower, staying slightly left of the crest.
Nick took the next lead, topping out on the next tower along the ridge.
Pitch 3 was a knife edge traverse across the ridge crest. This was an exciting pitch with a lot of exposure!
Nick took P4 and got us to the base of the next tower.
Pitch 5 was mine, and rather than climbing up and over the next tower, I went around to the right (5.6). This turned out to be an interesting traverse with some fun undercling/layback moves. However, this side had more loose rock, and some snow lingered on the route here.
From the notch between the two gendarmes, Nick began the 5.8 crux pitch. We both really enjoyed this pitch, and thought the climbing was challenging and fun. The climbing is slightly overhung, but the handholds are decently large, and it makes for some interesting moves.
Me topping out on the crux pitch
Finally, I led the way to the summit. Pitch 7 was just about a whole 60 meters, starting just beyond the top of the crux. It goes up one more tower, and then traverses right on the ridge crest to the summit. I radioed down to Nick, “Guess where I’m standing!!!”
Topping out on Forbidden!
The panorama from the summit was amazing.
Boston and Sahale
Eldorado
Boston Glacier and Mount Buckner
The ledges certainly didn’t look like much fun—we’ve heard they’re tough even in dry conditions. So with that, we turned around at 3:30 pm (after an hour or so at the summit). The downclimbing proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated. We were able to rap off the crux pitch, but the snow on the 5.6 traverse pitch just after that had melted out, making the rock wet and slippery. After some scary climbing, we reached the relative safety of the lower pitches, and continued by simul-climbing.
The descent took just as long as the climb, but was much less pleasant, and we arrived back at the base at 7:30 pm. Rapidly losing daylight, we made our way down the rocks/snow to high camp.
We picked up the trail in the dark at 9:15, and felt good enough about our situation to take a dinner break (cheese, sausage, and breadsticks!). However, finding the stream crossing at the bottom of the basin was extremely difficult in the dark, and we took an extra hour finding the right place to cross. We moved slowly down the trail, tired after the long day, and we got back to the car at 12:30. Fortunately, we didn’t have any bear sightings that night!
This was an excellent route to climb, and in a beautiful area! Having done most of the West Ridge earlier this year, I would have to say that this side of the peak should not be overlooked. Both are extremely enjoyable climbs on good rock, and the exposure of ridge climbing makes them very memorable.
Gear Notes:One 60 m 9.4 mm rope, BD camalots up to 2 inch, doubles on .75, 1, and 2, 6 double slings, 7 alpine draws... we always had extra gear at the top of each pitch, but it was nice to have the options.
Approach Notes:We didn't carry ice axes, but you may want one on the upper snowfields. However, you can avoid most of the snow and scramble on rock if you prefer.
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