Keith_Henson Posted July 7, 2006 Posted July 7, 2006 Climb: Boston Basin Forbidden Peak-taking the pigs for a walk Date of Climb: 7/5/2006 Trip Report: On Wednesday, July 5, 2006 Eric Mohler and I headed up to Boston Basin to climb Forbidden Peak via the West Ridge. Our hopes soared high as we broke out into the meadows in bright sunshine to magnificent views of Torment, Boston, Sahale, and Johannesburg. As we approached the high camp in Boston Basin, clouds started forming and by the time we reached the camp we were the audience to a concerto of thunder which soon became a symphony. We hurriedly set up the tents but fortunately we were spared from a downpour though it did start sprinkling. A NOLS group of 10 was at the high camp. A couple of the students came over. They had climbed to the Sahale-Boston col earlier but turned back from climbing Sahale when they saw the threatening weather on the other side of the ridge. They had been out for a month and were heading out the next day. They were a very nice group of kids. Within another hour clouds started rolling in from below to join up with the thunderclouds and we were soon in a whiteout and not to see Forbidden again. In the evening I got out of the tent and my hair started standing on end and tingling from the electrically charged atmosphere. Thunder persisted through the night. The clouds never lifted and we awoke in a white out and mist. We hung out for awhile hoping the weather would improve but it didn't. One couple did head up toward the climb. We decided to bail as we did not think the weather was going to improve which proved correct. We were totally soaked by the end of the two and half hour trip back down to the car. Of course the weather looks great today (Friday) as I sit in Puyallup... Approach Notes: Trial is snowfree all the way to high camp Quote
goatboy Posted July 7, 2006 Posted July 7, 2006 Seems like everyone has (at least one) story of getting shut down by weather in Boston Basin, often on the West Ridge....I know I do. Still a lovely place to be! Better luck on your next trip up there... Quote
Keith_Henson Posted July 7, 2006 Author Posted July 7, 2006 Unfortunately this is the second time for me I've been up there and back. At least this time I saw the peak... A couple moire pics here: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=6708 Quote
DirtyHarry Posted July 7, 2006 Posted July 7, 2006 Seems like everyone has (at least one) story of getting shut down by weather in Boston Basin, often on the West Ridge....I know I do. Yeah I went up there one time and the weather wasn't even all that bad, but it had been raining real hard and was still pretty chilly. I was light and fast solo style had sneakers and shorts and shit and about a mile up the trail I was so soaking fucking wet from wet brush that I just said fuck it and went home. Quite the less than cascade hardman effort that day. Quote
Eli3 Posted July 11, 2006 Posted July 11, 2006 Yeah - we were up at the inspiration/mccalaster col that day. The static was crazy, it was like my head was tingling. The cloud deck topped out around 7,000 if i remember correctly, and it was quite a view watching the clouds spill over from the cascade river road valley onto the basin the inspiration glacier drops into. Quote
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