Dannible

I'm not really a picky eater and am a fan of Idahoan potatoes because you can cook them in their own package just like the fancy freeze dried foods; throw a little cheese in there and you've got a full meal (I brought a pound of cheese to gunsight). Last week AJScott brought those eggs in a carton for breakfast (heavy, but it was an easy approach), and by the time we got to our camp at 6000 ft they had almost exploded from the pressure. Last year a friend of mine ate a whole mountain house meal uncooked, and with nothing to drink.

Yep, easy snow below shrund, the longer you wait to get on the rock the more you get to climb. Light shoes and crampons work fine. With any luck the moats and shrund have gotten a little bigger over the past week so that even with all this beta you can still have an adventure.

Ok, here it is. Aaron above the ice cliff. You might be able to belay over the sketchy bridges behind him, but I don't remember how they really looked. This is how we got down. Once at the notch, head towards torment for about 20 feet, downclimb for a while; rap at one of several oldish slings (like I said, bring extra rap tat). With one rope it should be 3 or 4 raps down to the snow. Traverse along moat (we belayed this) skiers right until you reach the 2 pin anchor. From here, if you only have one rope, rap to near the edge of the shrund, and make super bollard about 10 feet to the skiers left of the fall line. Another option (yellow dots) is to belay eachother over the narrow snow bridges to skiers right of the fall line. This might be too steep to do safely, and you would want a picket or 2, but it's an idea. For the love of god whatever you do DO NOT go straight down from your last rap on the rocks.

The rock was a bit looser on that part of the traverse, but I think I was going more for the path of nice looking rock than the path of least resistance, which ended up being one good 5.8 or 5.9 pitch to the main peak, downclimbing, and about 2 somewhat loose low 5th pitches to the south peak (in the dark). Anyway, good job.

If he doesn't want them I do.

Very nice. Is it 11+ then? Glad you had fun on the walk in. Sounds like the trail crew has cleared about 2.5 miles in the past month.

When I said that I found a better spot for the others to come down I just meant that there was a place for them to stand at the bottom without having to swing much, it didn't shorten it up enough to make one rope possible. The snow seemed like it would be ok for bollards, but you would want to make it really big and strong, as there is a chance that you will be freehanging depending on where you go over. Like I said, I'll post a couple of pictures and show you some options.

I assume you are talking about rapping onto the north side? On the rock part of the descent one rope wouldn't be a problem if you bring a little tat for more anchors, but in order to get over the shrund you would have to make a super solid bollard near the edge in order to get over. We were at the end of our ropes going from the lowest fixed rock anchor to the other side of the shrund. I will post more pictures of the whole thing tonight; it is the kind of thing that you really don't want to mess up. Another option is to go over Sharkfin col to the Boston glacier, over the N ridge of Forbidden, and from there go down to the base of the NW ridge. We figured that that would take just as long, but would have a little more elavation gain.

I'd say 3 for anything from orange down (not sure what the sizes are). I have tcus and 4s in a few sizes and when I only bring one of each I bring the tcus because they work in so many places that the fours don't. I have taken 3 falls on tcus, including a size 0 that walked itself passive, and all have held.

Just go up there and give them a shot. Bring some extra nuts if you're worried that you'll have to bail.

There are a lot of cracks on that face, but my guess is that with how popular it is pretty much all of them have been climbed by people who are off route and people who don't care about reporting routes. We got off route for a pitch or two last year and found pins and bolts where there is no known route.

I think you misunderstood what he was saying, there was no disagreement.

Aaron, don't worry about taking off. I prefer downclimbing over rapping too but Blake and I were moving so slow trying to avoid dropping loose stuff on eachother that it seemed like it would be faster. Maybe downclimbing one at a time and having one person wait until the other was in a safe place at the bottom would have been the way to go. Live and learn.

Yeah, it was the NW Face.

Trip: Forbidden - NW Face, with a near disastrous descent. Date: 7/26/2007 Trip Report: On July 25 Blake, AJScott, and I headed up to the Boston Basin with our sights set on the NW Face (really a ridge) of Forbidden. This was my third trip up to the basin, and I had been telling Aaron and Blake how easy the trail was all morning, but somehow I managed to lose the trail in the first avy path, forcing us to shwack straight up for an hour to get to the basin. We were planning on bivying at the west ridge notch, but the prospect of lounging in the sun for the rest of the day and not having to carry bivy gear any higher stopped us at the high camp. Boston and Sahale Forbidden. To get to the notch we climbed the rightmost "catscratch" just left of the couloir. The next morning Aaron and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:33 for coffee and tea, and got Blake up when our breakfast burritos were ready. At about 5 we were on our way up the glacier. We were told that the couloir was out (on a side note, someone left a rope sitting at the base of the couloir), so we decided to go up one of the gullies to the left. One mid 5th pitch lead to easier ground, and before long we were at the base of the west ridge. We downclimbed to skiers left for a while, then made a couple of 60m raps down to the snow. From the top of the glacier we belayed a traverse down and to skiers right to a 2 pin rap anchor that would get us over the gaping shrund. I went first, and ended up having to do a free hanging rappel down to the knots in the end of the rope, and a swing and quick axe placement to get over to other side of the shrund; I was then able to direct the other guys to a better spot to come down. From there it was an easy walk down to a ramp that put us on the ridge. Aaron rapping the huge icecliff. The ridge is pretty much amazing. The first half was class 4 with a little loose rock here and there, but fun climbing. A short simul pitch up an arete just past a neat ridge top sidewalk took us to the crux, which was a short but steep 5.8 fistcrack (could be bypassed to the left), and a pitch of fun 5.7 face climbing. From there we simul climbed 2 long low class 5 pitches on spectacularly clean and solid rock to the summit. This route deserves far more attention than I think it gets. It is like the west ridge in terms of rock quality, but a little steeper and about 3 times longer. I would say that it is the best moderate climb that I have ever done. Aaron called it a mini north ridge of Stuart. If you are up for the alpine shenanigans on the approach, seriously climb this route. After relaxing for a while on the summit we quickly downclimbed the west ridge, and once at the notch I told Aaron that we should be at the car by 8 or 9. I spoke too soon. Aaron found a reasonable way to downclimb all the way to the snow in one of the gullies and was way ahead of us, but Blake and I went a different way and decided to do a rappel because of all of the loose rock. At the base of the gully I started to pull our ropes, and a few rocks came down. Blake suggested that we get out of the line of fire, so he moved to the left of the gully, and I to the right. As I continued to pull the rope we heard the terrifying sound of a big rock coming down, and at the last moment I decided that Blake's spot looked more protected, and ran in that direction. The next few seconds happened slowly. I felt a horrible pain in my leg, saw a big rock and my shoe flying down the slope out of the corner of my eye, and gave a loud yell. I think we both knew in an instant that things had just gotten bad. I lifted my pant leg and a stream of blood squirted out a ways. I sat in shock holding pressure on the deep gash while Blake clipped me into a #2 Camalot anchor, grabbed my medical bag (which happened to be in my coat pocket because we had decided to leave my pack at camp), and went down to get my shoe. I quickly decided that my leg was not broken, which put my mind at ease because it meant that I would get to climb more this summer. I managed to stop the bleeding and bandage myself up, and somewhere along the line slid down a few inches to put my weight on the anchor. I suddenly heard a huge crack behind me. Blake yelled something and shoved me aside and in my numb state of shock I watched a several hundred pound block roll past where I had just been sitting. “Wow, things just aren't going well.” It turns out my weight on the anchor had caused the Camalot (which was destroyed in the process) to tear the flake off, just as Blake was working on setting up a better anchor. Without much discussion we decided that it was time to go. Blake found a crack to place the only nut that we had left (Aaron had the rack, and was way below us at this point) to lower me down to the glacier. Once on the glacier I glissaded and limped down to camp as Blake ran ahead to start packing up. Once I got back to camp we ate some dinner donated by our friendly neighbors (if you read this, thanks again), and Blake and Aaron packed up our packs, dividing up most of the weight between themselves as the marmots watched curiously. Under normal conditions it is reasonable to get to the trailhead in about an hour. We left a little after 8 and got down there at about 1. The walk out went pretty much as one might expect: a lot of swearing, some clenching of teeth, and a snail's pace. By 4am I was doped up in the Skagit Valley Hospital, chatting with the doctor about how great the mountains are. I got 6 stitches and can't really walk all that well for now, but things could have been a whole lot worse; in fact things went about as well as they could have in that situation. The point: Never get too comfortable or let your guard down in the mountains. Once you do, they will kick your ass just to remind you who's in charge. Rockfall has been my biggest fear for a long time, but for some reason I was not paying enough attention to it in this case. Climb with people who you think you can trust in stressful situations, and don't go out there if you aren't sure that you can keep your head on straight when the shit goes down. Aaron and Blake get two thumbs up as partners, as they really stayed calm, and were super helpful on the way out. Thanks guys. Oh, and if you climb with Blake, remind him that he might want all of that food that he may have left behind at the last minute. Gear Notes: Carry a medical kit and know how to use it. It doesn't need to be huge, you can only do so much out there, but you should be able to stop a good amount of bleeding to stabilize a person. Sure you can improvise bandages, but it is nice to not have to think about things and be creative when everything is crazy. I had a wide gauze roll, a sponge, tape, a triangle bandage, and was glad to use it all. We bootied about 4 nuts, 1 pin, 2 slings, an atc, and could have taken 2 ropes (though one was bleached white). Approach Notes: Road still closed at the Eldorado TH. This adds about 2.75 miles to the Boston Basin approach.

That is really just not right. I am a pretty laid back person, but if I ever have that happen to me I could see getting mad and saying or doing something that would get me in trouble. I wonder if someone from the park could post here and try to explain the logic behind that. The national parks belong to us.

I was recently researching approach shoes for myself and found that it seems like on almost all of them half the people who have tried them dislike them, and half swear by them. I ended up getting some Vasque shoe with stealth rubber that I really like. Good for walking/hiking, and are pretty good for edging and cracks up to about 5.8 (for me anyway). Look for whatever is on sale if price makes any difference for you, there are lots of good deals out there.

Sometimes you can find one of those big cans of halfway decent coffee (I have something like Cardona right now, not terrible) at the grocery outlet for $3, so I pay a few cents a cup.

I don't think it's a secret, I've heard it talked about a bit and I almost never climb in Oregon. What kind of cracks are they? Basalt, similar to smith? What is the average grade?

Nice job guys, glad to hear that the weather worked out for you for the most part. I'm the guy that you met at the bakery with Blake. Some of those pictures look so familiar; I think we may have swung across that same moat. And yes, the east face is very nice.

Word on the street is that there are some slabs pretty much at the base of the west faces (a couple hundred feet below) that are pretty good. They were covered in snow a couple of weeks ago, but I wouldn't be suprised if they have melted out by now. Otherwise you can go up to the pass south of gunsight, or dig a platform in the snow anywhere. Have fun up there, and try not to let the approach get you down.

That picture doesn't do the chimney justice. We linked the corner shown in the picture with the real first pitch (I think), but if you choose to do this and the leader is a 5.10b/c climber I would suggest slpitting it in 2 by belaying at the rap slings below the overhang because the crux comes at the very end of the pitch right when you are getting tired. I didn't split it up, and took some nice falls as a result. Sweet pitch though, the overhang is easier than it looks.

I've done 6 of them in a half day. Don't bother with a rope if you are ok with downclimbing, and while crampons won't be required, you might want an axe or trekking poles to help cross any lingering snowpatches. Most of it is just scree walking without much elevation gain so your time will depend on whether you walk or run on the easier stuff. Fun place.

Yep, a great few days in one of the nicest places that I have ever been. The traverse should be a classic, and would be more popular than similar routes such as the Torment to Forbidden (that's really the only thing that I can think of to compare it to) if it were closer to a road. We pitched out about 15 pitches, simul-climbed a couple (class 4), and soloed a couple (low 5th and class 4) to help avoid a cold night. There were 3 or 4 5.10 pitches, and all but a few were above 5.5. What Blake left out about the last pitch and the 2 raps to the snow was that they were done in almost total darkness, without headlamps; headlamps and alpine starts are aid anyway. The 2006 east face route is super cool. Solid rock, and really sustained. Aiding the crux by pulling on gear is pretty easy if that kind of thing isn't for you. We did a variation of that pitch (because we were confused) and A0ed up the wide flake to the right, which would also be about 10d. When we realised where we went wrong Blake dropped down and TRed the real splitter, which he really enjoyed. Due to our 5pm start, we enjoyed another summit sunset. Our new route, Accidental Discharge, is not quite so classic. The fist pitch was good, but my pitch was pretty much just plain nasty. With several 5.10 overhanging offwidths and chimneys, poor protection, and rock so loose that I had to take inventory of what holds I could use before committing to cruxes, it is more like something you would find in the Olympics than in the Gunsight range. Sorry for giving too much beta, but I am just still pretty stoked about how things worked out. Blake is a good parner, and knows this area of the Cascades more than pretty much anyone.

My dad lived worked there for a while in the 80s, and throughout my life he told me enough jokes and stories about the kind of people who live there to make me want to avoid it at all costs. He said that he whenever he left Bellevue he could never look people in the eye when he told them where he was from, so I just kind of get a kick out of how enthused you are about the place. Not that there is anything wrong with that... I found it interesting that when you were questioning what there is to life you said nothing about climbing. I would guess that to many people here that is more important than the other options you listed, and for some, myself included, it is more important than their job, house, car, and money (no, I don't have a family to support right now). Its not going to change the world, but unlike the system that many people in places like Bellevue for example are feeding into, its not hurting much. I do fall into your 18-25 year old category, so its not like anything that I have to say is worth anything to a fellow with your kind of class and wardrobe, but have you ever thought of working to improve the living standards (education, parks, crime) in places like Seattle rather than just moving to suburbia to pretend that the problems don't exist? This is all just something to think about; who knows, in 20 yeas I might be living next door to you, giving my life away to make my boss richer in order to pay for my fancy hover car and pool. Feel free to defend your way of life by insulting mine, I am going to be off climbing for a while and won't be able to respond, so you will be able to feel like you shut me down.