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Trip: Boston Basin - NW Face of Forbidden Peak Date: 6/21/2015 Trip Report: On Sunday, June 21st, a group of four of us did the NW Face of Forbidden Peak. It's a spectacular route that is never hard, but long and somewhat committing. Highly recommended. At first light we hiked to Boston Basin, then up and right toward Sharkfin Col. We rappelled onto the very broken Boston Glacier, and spent several hours traversing toward the N. Ridge col. It's important to go to the RIGHT col, as it allows easy access to the glacier that continues down to the toe of the NW Face route. The glacier is quite broken up, but still passable with keen navigation skills. Best approach is to get onto the route from the lower right toe of the ridge (we did not do this and ended up doing one unsavory entry pitch. See photos. Once on the climb, it goes fast and is really good climbing. About halfway up, the ridge narrows and the easy climbing ends at a stance. From here, down climb to the left to find easier ramps which continue up past a fixed Friend and fixed pin, through a slot (What Beckey calls "the chimney"). Not hard and pretty low angle. From here, stay on the very (blunt) ridge crest and follow your nose to the top. We simul climbed the entire ridge in about 3 hours. The crux is getting TO and ON the rock, not the rock. We descended the east ridge and were back to the car by day's end. A fantastic route. Gear Notes: We brought a single rack with doubles of smaller stuff. Lots of small cams are useful as there are many thin cracks in the .5 Camelot and smaller size. No big gear is needed. We brought a #2 Camelot and could have left it behind. A #1 is handy, often. Bring a dozen long slings and a few draw. We used and Wild Country Ropeman for simul climbing. Handy. We did the entire route in approach shoes. Rock shoes not needed if a competent 5.9 climber. We used a lightweight axe and strap on spikes, and I brought a single ski pole for the hiking and snow travel. Approach Notes: 69 photos of our climber can be found here. https://plus.google.com/photos/116120865100448623226/albums/6163253385062770097

Has anyone been up to the Snow Creek Wall this season? I'm thinking of going up Outer Space this weekend and wondering how the conditions are on the approach, route, and descent.

Given the time of year, I would bring lightweight spikes to use with lightweight boots, but a beefier axe with some heft in the shaft and pick, and two pickets. You may want to do a running belay on the steep snow traverse. Once you get off of that (which I think of as "the crux") you'll be all on rock, and near the "sidewalk in the sky" section which is super cool. From there, it's the standard W Ridge and east ridge descent, and lots of Cascade talus surfing and steep trail back to the car. Good luck.

The East Ridge descent is easier, and avoids the snow gully which precedes the West Ridge. You don't go down the ridge proper, you go down five (or six?) one-rope raps which are low angle (Some people down climb them, but it's tedious and slow and more dangerous, so why bother?) After the last rappel, you go rappeller's left across ledge systems toward the base of the east ridge, aiming for the obvious notch at the base of the west ridge. There are many ways to go, but it goes quickly, and deposits you at the notch, which is followed by a very straightforward descent into the basin. There is a good picture of the "pure" ridge traverse in Fifty Favorite Climbs under the Jim Nelson chapter.

I agree that it is not too late for a one-day, C2C ascent. Start super early and you should get off by dark. You can gauge your progress by your "split" times. I did the route years ago in 9:39 C2C. Our time from car to top of Torment at 3:15, so about one third of the time. So just triple your time from the top of Torment and do the math. The snow should be super firm, but the rock will be dry and the descent down the east "ridge" should be good as well. Don't descend the W Ridge, less pure and more time consuming.

I was climbing at Index yesterday in the Country area of the lower town wall. We did Tunnel Vision and Angora Grotto, a second pitch above Tunnel Vision. While lowering off of Angora Grotto, I noticed a line of new-ish bolts climber's LEFT of Angora Grotto, directly in the rappel line. It has big, fat, closely spaced bolts and looks to be a semi-hard route... 11c? Maybe harder. Does anyone know the route's name and rating? THe route looks clean and classic.

I carried everything over the top, but didn't have much. What I had went into the pack at the base of the rock, including approach shoes, poles, ice axe, etc. Out came the daisies and cams and harness. Up I went, about 2.5 hours on to summit, then off with the harness, rock shoes, cams, etc. and back into hiking mode with poles. It would be a big hassle to get back to the base of the route to pick stuff up and you pretty much need everything else to get back down, so I don't recommend the gear stash. If you need to stash gear, you have too much!

Let's just say the bugs kept me moving... they were bad by the lake, not so much up higher with a bit of wind. The climb with Fred was fun. More to come!

I climbed Serpentine Arete on Dragontail yesterday. The route, approach and descent are all in good condition. I used lightweight hikers for the approach, and brought ski poles and a lightweight ice axe. I could have done without the ice axe, but still used it on the descent. I did not bring crampons and didn't need them. If I were to go again soon, I'd simply bring a Whippet pole and a regular pole. There are some hard patches of snow on the descent, but the consequences of a slide are minimal. Asgaard Pass is snow free. Those are the basic facts. I took some gratuitous photos and video on my solo ascent. For those interested, click this link. https://picasaweb.google.com/116120865100448623226/SerpentineSolo

Did Davis Holland yesterday. The first pitch is still wet, but still sorta climbable. The next two pitches are totally dry and great as usual. The first pitch of Lovin' Arms is very wet, some rapped from top of DH. Looks like LA needs another week to stop seeping.

Pasting in the URL again... first time didn't work: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=c2d525e3ead44001#cid=C2D525E3EAD44001&id=C2D525E3EAD44001%21109 For some reason I can't get the link to turn to a hyper link. Simply select the text, and right click and choose "Open URL". That should work. Sorry for confusion.

Thanks all. Hoping it dries out....

Index Upper Town Wall question beta needed: I'm planning to climb Davis Holland/Lovin' Arms and rappel back to the base. I've done the route before, but it's been over ten years, so I'm looking for some current beta. Two questions: 1. What is the best rap route? Is it SWIM, or something else? 2. Can this be done with a single 70m rope? I gotta believe the answer is yes, and would love to leave the second rope behind. Thanks for any help or tips.

Trip: Yosemite - Regular NW Face of Half Dome Date: 6/5/2012 Trip Report: I recently climbed the Regular NW Face of Half Dome, in a long day, Valley to Valley. I took pretty good notes of our tactics, and captured them in this trip report. Parties interested in climbing HD in a day may find this useful. Click this link: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=c2d525e3ead44001&resid=C2D525E3EAD44001!109&id=C2D525E3EAD44001%21109

I did the route last week and must say it's really nice. It's a great, pleasant line with varied climbing and lots of fun movement. The approach offers a nice warm up and super views of the Stuart Range. My only complaint is that the route is overbolted. I appreciate the route setter's desire to make the route safe and popular, but anyone who can climb 5.10b can deal with a fifteen foot runout on 5.6 slabs. My advice is to do it in three and a half pitches. Bring 16 draws (or tweleve and skip a bunch of bolts) and do two "pitches" at a time. Basically, it's a nice three pitch route with super views.