[TR] Forbidden- W Ridge 5/20/2004

[wingy]

Climb: Forbidden-W Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 5/20/2004

 

Trip Report:

Route is dry. You can' t cheat on the N side on those 4th class ledges (buried), which makes getting off a little longer.

 

Gully is still in, though not for long. Serious moating in effect, and I'd guess the thing will be gone in 2 weeks (I know that sounds early, but it is very dry for this time of year.)

 

The River Road is open to within a mile of the TH, though the Park says that they are "going to close the road at Eldorado Creek." Initially, they told me this would happen "in July", but when we went to get permits they said that "it could be moved down even earlier." So -- smoke 'em if you got 'em.

 

No pics.

 

 

Gear Notes:

#1 Camelot and a picket

 

Approach Notes:

Snow at 5500 (more or less tree line)

[Juan]

Are you serious about the gully? You sound like you know what you are talking about. This is amazing. Maybe I should change my plans to take my wife up that route mid-June.

 

Perhaps the N. Ridge, but didn't Ray say the E. Ledge rap slings are manky?

 

Sharp

[slothrop]

E Ledges descent is not bad, as of last fall. Just inspect the last rappel station carefully. See this thread.

[MrChips]

Yes, why would manky rap slings bother you? You seem to KNOW that they are, so you're ahead of the game, hell, maybe put up some new ones. that's like a handyman saying "well, i can't get into my basement, the last step is broken". Cognitive dissonance.

[MrChips]

Also, What's up when people say "naw man, that route's out of season".?? I had a 'mountaineer' tell me that on good authority, the moat was present on Forbiddens west ridge approach, so the climb could not be done, i should have timed it better. well, i head up there and we easily scramble down through and around, a bit of a nuisance really but only about 15 mins of extra time and voila, we are up on the ridge without any wankers around. which is great cuz someone would have probably told me that the anchors were 'out' on the east ridge descent route, then we would have really been screwed!!

[Billygoat]

Thanks for the Beta Wingy.

 

Mr. Chips, thanks for being you...

[Juan]

Thanks for the reponses. I've been down the E. Ledges twice and I think we skipped the last rappel anyway. I will check out that earlier thread that Ray started.

 

I am always cautious about route condition reports -- I'm sure I have told people something was out, and they then went and did it -- and I have heard people all too often say that something is out and I have then walked right up it. Once, after climbing the Entiat Icefall on Maude in early July some years ago, we met some guys on the trail on the way out who had bailed on the N. Face. They said the whole thing was GONE! Not exactly, was our smug response.

 

My questions were really more driven by the fact that I generally prefer not to expose my wife to too much risk.

 

Cheers all,

 

John

[MrChips]

Yes John, I understand, and I see you have had similar encounters. I guess my point is, don't sit at home on this website all weekend cuz someone told you the proposed route you were planning on hitting up is GONE.

 

Climb safe with your wife.

[Skeezix]

If the gully is out, it's fairly easy to scramble up a series of ledges to the left of the gully. There also used to be rap anchors down this series of ledges as well.

[miller]

why are they going to close the road at eldorado creek?

[meganerd]

closing road at Eldo Creek because road is very washed out at Boston (Midas? Morningstar?) Creek and the pullout at MP 21 is too small to be sure about getting large equipment through to the washout. Eldo Creek lot is huge. I think it would be interesting to see any kind of really large equpment getting up that first switchback past MP 21 though...

[letsroll]

looking at doing the Torment/Forbidden travers and need beta on how to decend forbidden. After climbing Forbidden via west ridge how do you get down? What is the descent route? Is the decend down climbing? what shape is it in?

[ivan]

ride the zip-line from the summit back to b-basin...don't forget a clean pair of drawers

[slothrop]

Do a search for "east ledges descent". People usually do that or downclimb/rap the west ridge.

[Juan]

Chips Ahoy! Point well taken. Trust that I never, ever sit at home because of what I read here. That said, if I see a valuable and reliable piece of information that cuts against an intended route, it may cause me to rethink a plan. The nice thing about plans is that they can always be changed. When we have a babysitter for our three young sons and the weather is good and everything is a go, it's a GO if you know what I mean. The stars don't line up very often, but when they do, we try to maximize the effort within our meager abilities.

 

Cheers,

 

John

[Kyle_Flick]

Juan, I agree wholeheartedly!

[aws]

Any newer beta on the gully? Really melting out as fast as this thread indicates?

[murr]

Anyone have fresh beta on the condition of the gully? If it's out, are the belay stations to the left still buried? Any input on how much slower scrambling the rock on the left is?