[TR] Forbidden Peak - NW Face 07/13/2025

[Grant789]

Trip: Forbidden Peak - NW Face

Trip Date: 07/13/2025-07/14/2025

Trip Report:

This has been on my list for a while given the high praise in guidebooks. Checking rec.gov on Monday, somehow permits to Boston Basin were available for this Sun-Mon that Alex, Liza, and I had saved for this route. With Liza and my previous experience on W Ridge, we figured this would go smoothly, but as is tradition with Forbidden, we were a bit slower than expected.

 

Day 1: Approach to bivy on base of NW Face

We left the Boston Basin trailhead at 8:45 am. The trail was brushy as usual and the river crossings had easy rocks to hop over. After a bathroom break at the lower boston we made our way to Sharkfin Col. We shot up a snow finger arching right towards Sharkfin and scrambled up and left in a gully about 200 feet before the big notch at the end of the snow finger. Two raps down to Boston Glacier over/in and out of the two bergschrunds. 

We made quick work of the Boston Glacier (thanks to some faint tracks likely from the day before) and scrambled the classic “potato chip” gully/col up to the Forbidden Glacier. With the crumbling rock/sand combination, this required the full body tension of precarious slab climbing with the added bonus of explosive holds that kept things spicy.

Walking down the Forbidden Glacier was very chill and there were some rocks that were poking out in the middle that had water flowing over them which allowed us to fill up before crossing below the route and ascending the glacier on the other side. We saw tracks from a team that did the NW Face Var of the N Ridge (Scary!). We then navigated around crevasses on the west side of the rib to a snow ramp onto the rib at ~7,600 feet. This was smooth sailing for the most part, but the little snow finger to get onto the rock is thinning out so threw in a picket given the large bergschrund right below us to ease our nerves.  The snow finger didn’t look like it would last much longer than a week or two, so additional shenanigans may be needed later in the season.

By 8 pm we found a small bivy, which we adjusted to make decently comfortable for all three of us and set up camp under clear skies with views of Moraine Lake. Luckily we had no bugs or snafflehounds overnight, just very gusty wind and the occasional sound of rockfall echoing around the cirque.

Day 2: Ascent and descent

We woke up and made breakfast as the clouds came and went, occasionally completely surrounding us in grey.

After breakfast we made a quick 4th/low 5th pitch to the base of the knife edge starting around 8 am. All of us were stiff from the day before and were grateful for the warmup. The knife edge was very fun and super chill! A short section of crumbly rock, but otherwise quite solid.  Clouds rolled in and out making it hard to suss out the route above us. 

The crux pitch took some figuring out and I’m still not sure if I did it right. The first bit was one quick 5.8 move that was quite fun above the old piton and perfect finger-sized gear. The second bit was a weird overhanging hand/fist crack that felt burlier than I expected. I pulled up into the crack then switched to the face to make use of some great footholds.

The chimney pitch was quite loose, with multiple death blocks that I stepped on to avoid the crumbly rock-sand. I did not enjoy leading that….

After the chimney pitch it was fun ridge romping up cleaner rock. I was a bit gassed so I handed the lead to Liza. Luckily the clouds cleared and we had some fun sunny climbing. Liza made the mistake of shooting left onto the face rather than staying on the true ridgeline once the ridgeline got more licheny. This led to harder climbing on what looked like cleaner rock, but it had minimal protection and hid multiple death blocks that threatened a scary rope-cutting incident. She shot back over to the ridgeline on the right for more fun and cleaner rock climbing to the summit by 4 pm. No major mistakes happened, but we were way slower than expected with the fatigue, weather, and figuring out our simul dynamic with this trio. We ended pitching out more than we needed to.

At this point the clouds started rolling in, so we decided to high tail out. As we began the rappels along the ridge, the wind picked up and it started to rain. This was probably the low point of the day as sideways rain blasted us along the knife edge rappels. After two raps along the ridge, we did two raps down the west side to an easy 4th class ramp that meets the first ⅓ of the W Ridge. We added some tat to some of the weathered stations.

Four double raps down the Cat Scratch and we were out hiking! It was great knowing the descent beta from when we did the W Ridge four years ago. Luckily it was still light when we navigated the snow field and slabs below. We got back to the car by 11 pm.

 

Overall:

This was an engaging adventure that required a bit of everything. Knowing the W Ridge descent was very helpful. The climbing was not as good as we expected, but the knife edge and some of the upper ridge were a blast. The position, line itself, and the approach are amazing. 4 star line with 2 star climbing (though with more traffic/trundling could be 3-4 star climbing). Overall, an engaging experience, but we are still quite confused as to why this route isn’t called NW Rib because the only time we were climbing what I would call a “face” we were definitely off route…

 

Heading up the snow finger towards Sharkfin (rap we used is just to the left, rather than up in the notch straight ahead):

 

Chossy scramble up to Forbidden Glacier:

 

Snow finger to access the base of the route:

 

Looking down on the the snow finger and the bergshrund below it:

 

Morning at the bivy spot:

 

Looking back down the knife edge:

 

Cruxing:

 

Alex pulling the weird crux move:

 

Liza following the crux:

 

Solid exposure!

 

Summit selfie:

 

W Ridge descent:

Gear Notes:
Singles 0.2-2 with doubles 0.4-1. 1 picket. Axes. Crampons. Having another 0.3 would have been nice.

Approach Notes:
Boston glacier approach

Edited Wednesday at 07:45 PM by Grant789

[Mo 8501]

Awesome climb and report! Glad you could leave those chossy death blocks sleeping. Solid adventure for a single overnight! 

[Grant789]

Thanks! It totally felt like something you would have done in the pickets!

[Michael Telstad]

Dream team 😍

[Mo 8501]

On 7/16/2025 at 10:18 AM, Grant789 said:

Thanks! It totally felt like something you would have done in the pickets!

I haven’t been to that area yet, but it looks incredible!! One of these trips I’d love to invite myself with you 3 (+ Kurt). Ya’ll really seem to enjoy your time up there in good style.