Need beta on W and E Ridges of Forbidden

[MtnHigh]

Climb the W Ridge on 7/2. You can read my posting at:

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000116.html

[Ibex]

Anybody done the west ridge or East Ridge Direct on Forbidden lately? What are the conditions like right now?

thanks!

------------------

Put a high price on your own head, or rest assured, no one else will.

[hasbeen]

I was up on the West Ridge on July 8-9. If that is recent enough, send me a private message and I'll give you any info I can.

[Yossarian]

Don't bring two ropes, one is fine.

[dlando]

I climbed the west ridge July 31st. Conditions were excellent - no shrund yet in the gully and we could walk right up the middle of the glacier.

We had a great climb and would have made a one day car to car ascent, but we made the mistake of taking the east ledges descent. We had never done this before and basically spent hours trying to figure out where the "ledges" were, how far to traverse, etc. You should be comfortable soloing on loose rock and exposed down-sloping dirt shelves if you choose to go this way. I recommend going back down the west ridge.

Dan

[Jens]

I've done both descents I think that the East ledges descent is definitely faster but is more nerve wracking. Plus once you are done and hit snow It is way fast.

So decide what your priorities are.

[philfort]

We climbed the East Ridge Direct yesterday. Crampons were pretty much necessary for the ascent to the notch; the snow isn't steep, but it was rock hard in the morning. The ridge was great, exposed, solid rock.

We did the east ledges descent, which wasn't nearly as bad as we had heard - maybe we got lucky with the routefinding though. We did 3 raps, a bit of traversing, one more rap, then more traversing. We headed back up to the ridge crest just before the (horrible-looking) gully that Nelson/Beckey recommends. I think it took between 60 and 90 minutes from the summit back to the notch. It's very exposed, but there's always solid rock to grab on to.

The descent/ascent up to the notch from BB has a little tricky section when you get off the snow going up. There was an abandoned new-looking rope anchored to the rocks there, for a rappel. I wonder what happened there?