TR: Northwest Rib of Forbidden

[dberdinka]

Anyone who's climbed the West Ridge of Forbidden has probably taken notice of the Northwest Rib. A beautiful fin of rock that breaches the icefalls of the Forbidden Glacier and shoots straight for the summit. I had considered this route for years but never got around to doing it until this August. I happened to be there, just a day or two after Phil and Lambone had climbed the East Ridge.

After a rainy weekend, high pressure began to build in the beginning of the week. Living in Bellingham, I was able to leave work in the late afternoon, make the Marblemount office before it closed and get to the trailhead by 7:00 PM. Breaking a good sweat, I reached the high camp in Boston Basin just as it got dark. The night started with a layer of clouds blowing in from the east and filling up the Cascade River valley to a stones throw below my bivi site. While I looked at stars, tents a 100' away were buried in clouds. About midnight a small breeze started from the west and soon built to an incredible gale. Laying in my bivi sack I felt like I was about to be rolled down the hillside. Around 6 AM the winds had not died at all, so I packed up and began stumbling up the slabs below the glacier.

The coulior was still in good shape, so I rapidly found myself at the West Ridge notch. To reach the NW Rib from here one has to descend a steep wall on the backside of the notch. Several hundred feet of downclimbing led to a single rope rappel, some more downclimbing then two more rappels onto the headwall of the Forbidden Glacier. This slope is initally 50 degrees and poised above a huge bergshrund, so I chopped a bollard and did one more rappel onto lower angle terrain. A descending traverse led to an obvious ramp leading onto the NW Rib near its base. From here it's at least 1200' vertical feet of climbing along the sharp crest of the rib to the summit.

Easy scrambling led to a sharp, horizontal stretch of excellent rock. Climbing past this required some hand traverses on the very crest of the rib. A steep tower at its end formed the crux of the route. I climbed this directly by a short pitch of 5.7/5.8, again on excellent rock. More easy climbing led to a deep chimney just left of the obvious snowpatch on the face. Another short pitch of 5.6/5.7 led up the chimney and through a short slot to the upper rib. The last 800' of the climb were truely exceptional. By staying exactly on the rib crest, one finds sustained low-5th climbing that rivals the West Ridge in quality. Just below the false summit I trended left to the summit. Between the quality of the rock, the position and the commitment of the approach, this is possibly the finest climb I've done in the Cascades.

Gear:

60 meter rope

Ice axe & crampons

picket

small rack to 2.5 inches

I wrote this up in conjuction with another post here:

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001047.html

[This message has been edited by dberdinka (edited 10-14-2001).]

[Lambone]

Hey D,

We climbed on the same day! I actually remember seeing you travers below us on the North East Face (we waved to each other). I remember thinking, shit I'd better not kick anything down right now!

Truley an impresive solo climb, Congrats! I heard you walk past our bivi spot sometime in the night. The Wind!-man it was blowin up there. It never let me sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I didn't think it would let us climb, fortunately it died down in the afternoon.

This is a perfect example of why I like this web site. Without it our passing would just be a distant memory, two strangers exchanging waves on a remote peak, never close enough to exchange words. Anyway, it was good to see your trip report, it brought me back to that beautifull day!

[This message has been edited by lambone (edited 10-14-2001).]

[dberdinka]

Cool man, so our paths almost crossed. Looks like it's just you and I out trolling this website today...

[Lambone]

Trust me, rather be climbin' or somethin. Intsead I'm workin on a paper.